Family Business
by Eralane
Summary: DantexNero. Vergil returns. He somehow survived the events of Mallet Island, and had been locked away for years. Living together at Devil May Cry gets a little more complicated, and a little accident with Nero sure doesn't make it easier. Warnings: yaoi, dxn, weird things happening o.O
1. Mating season

Okay, this will be random, but I want to write it for some reason o_O Prepare for lots of chapters because I have a feeling this will be very very long one...

* * *

><p>Chapter 1. Mating season?<p>

Nero came home from a long job, tired, without payment, and hungry. He walked straight to the fridge in the small kitchen in Devil May Cry's office and took out a box of two days old pizza. There was a yellow note on the box, saying 'The last piece is mine -Dante'. Nero opened the box, and saw that only two pieces were left. He sighed deeply and took the other piece off, leaving the rest in the fridge. He grabbed a can of soda from the fridge door and closed it, and went to sit on the couch with his cold meal. That was when he noticed Trish, sitting on Dante's desk, reading a magazine.

"Dante's not home yet", she told him, as if she had read Nero's thoughts. "He said he'd be gone 'til the evening. Better hope he brings in some money", she said and looked up from her magazine.

Nero sighed. "The customer got freaked out by my arm... He ran off before I could explain", he said and held his Devil Bringer.

"You should learn to hide it, sweetie. Folks don't like us demons", Trish noted.

"It's easier for you and Dante. You both look normal", Nero grunted and took a bite off the pizza. "Are we supposed to wait until evening before we get any food?"

"Before you get any food, you mean. I've already eaten enough. I saved that piece for you."

Nero sighed. He had thought there were more food in the fridge than just one piece of pizza when he left. "You could've saved some more. This one piece will just make me hungrier."

Trish shrugged. "A girl's got to eat, right?"

Luckily, Dante came back home before sun went down. And with money! Nero felt like hugging the older hunter when he said he'd take the two shopping for food. If one piece wasn't enough for Nero, it sure wasn't enough for Dante. Nero joked about getting a pizza with olives, so that Dante wouldn't eat it, but the older man said he wouldn't allow such abominations in his fridge, so that's it then.

The grocery store was just a little small one, with different weekly discounts. With discounts and prices like them, it was the only place Dante was willing to shop using his own money. The food was... not the best... But edible, and sometimes pretty good. Depending on what was on discount at the time. Sometimes Nero thought that Dante bought discount food to use more money on quality pizza and alcohol. According to Trish, there was a time when Dante was addicted to an ice cream called 'Strawberry Sundae', and even tomato juice in addition to pizza.

"You know", Dante said while searching for a price on a pack of noodles. "Maybe we should just eat out someday".

"With what you bring home each job?" Trish snorted. "I doubt it will be anytime soon. You're too much in debt to Lady".

"Of course I meant after I've paid the debts and can actually start earning something..." Dante sighed. "Stupid Lady for giving me shitty jobs..."

"Stupid you for causing too much destruction in your dealings", Trish laughed.

Nero felt a little left out from their banter, and stared at the list of ingredients on a milk carton absent-mindedly. Dante noticed this and walked to him, taking the carton of milk from his hands and putting it in the basket.

"Don't look so sad there, kid. I'll play with you later", he said and gave Nero suggestive smirk and quirk of eyebrows.

Nero smiled and followed Dante to the checkout. Trish followed behind them, still in the dark about the relationship between Nero and her partner in crime. And when Trish was home and they needed to... relieve some stress... they had to do so very quietly to not wake her up. It was unclear to Nero why Dante wanted to keep it as a secret from Lady and Trish, while Nero would want to shout it for all the world to hear. Maybe it was because of his past flirting with every woman around and generally appearing as heterosexual as a man could be.

Trish looked at a calendar on the stores wall. "Hey, Dante... Isn't it 'that' time of year again?" she asked.

Dante turned to look back at her while paying for what they had bought. "What time?"

"Well, you know, the time of the year when animals and, well, **demons** usually **mate** like hell and then have tons of offspring? You know, this particular month of spring", Trish said. "You've been awfully quiet about it this year."

Nero turned to look at Dante with a face that read 'seriously? mating season?' all over it. 'That explains a lot', Nero thought. Dante had wanted sex every night, sometimes twice a day for the past two weeks, and now suggesting it in a grocery store... But a mating season? Jeez.

"Banging somebody in secret, are we?" Trish asked mischievously. "Last year you brought hookers home. And the year before that, and-"

"Whoa, T-M-I", Nero spelled out. "I don't want to hear that."

"Sorry sweetie", Trish chuckled. "You'll give me an answer later, then", she said and poked Dante's chest.

"Sure, sure, whatever", Dante said waving his hand and took the grocery bags from the counter. "Let's just go home now, I'm starving."

**Back at the office**

"So, who are you fucking?" Trish asked casually, making Dante cough on his ramen.

"Why's my sex life so interesting to you all suddenly?" He asked. Nero rolled his eyes in the background.

"Not your sex life, but it's absence. Should I be worried?"

"Pfft, no..." Dante chuckled. "I'm doing great, thanks."

"Or... Maybe the boy's right and you're just getting old", Trish laughed.

"Oh come on, I'm 30. -ish", Dante snorted.

"Mid-30's, I know, I know", she turned to look at Nero. "Hey, you're at least a quarter-demon, right? Don't you have any... urges?"

Nero looked at Trish with a slight blush. "Not really..." Dante took pretty good care of his 'needs', so even if he did have a small type of mating season, it wouldn't show under Dante's eagerness to jump into his pants on every given chance. "What about you? You're a demon."

Trish shook her head. "Yeah, but created by Mundus... I guess that's why I have little to no desires at all", she sighs. "It's fun alright, I get why people do it, but I don't have any particular urges... Not like this old geezer here who complained non-stop through last year's mating season..."

Dante looked at Trish. "Excuse me, but 'old geezer'? You're picking up things from Nero, aren't you. Stop that."

Much later in the evening, Nero peeked into Trish's room to see if she was asleep. After being sure about it, he returned to Dante's bedroom. "She's asleep", he whispered, earning a smirk from Dante.

"Come here you..." Dante murmured in a very perverted way. It wasn't hard to guess what would follow. After all, he had promised to play with Nero later...

* * *

><p>This fic has been greatly inspired by a DeviantART user karaii, and I recommend checking out their art. Especially the Devil May Cry related art is cute as hell. Least I can do for them for giving me an idea to write this.<p> 


	2. Speak of the Devil

Chapter 2. Speak of the devil

Dante walked restlessly around Devil May Cry. He walked to each window and back, repeatedly, and checked the fridge at least six times. Trish sat behind Dante's desk and observed Dante's behaviour while Nero lay on the bathroom floor, the only cool place in the building at the moment. It was July, a couple of months after Dante's 'mating season' had occurred.

"Is there really no way to cool this place down?" Dante groaned with frustration. He had already opened every window there was to open, and even the doors.

"Oh, I don't know, air-conditioning?" Trish suggested in a sarcastic tone. She was wearing black jean-shorts and a bikini top.

"You know I can't afford such luxuries", Dante growled. He looked at Trish who was just chilling out behind the desk, drinking water with ice and filing her nails. "God damn it..." he muttered and took off all the shirts he was wearing and went to the bathroom. He found Nero lying down behind the shower curtain. He was pale and sweaty, which worried Dante. "Are you alright, kid?" he asked and crouched down next to the boy.

Nero looked at Dante and took a deep breath. "I'm not feeling too well", he whispered.

"Aww. Is it the heat?" The older man asked and stroked the boy's head gently.

"I don't know... Fortuna was pretty warm, so I don't know..." Nero mumbled. "I felt sick yesterday too. And the day before that... But it goes away in the afternoon."

Dante looked at the clock in the other room. "Yeah, it's still early. Well I hope it's nothing serious. I just told Trish I can't afford air-conditioning, so just so you know, I can't pay for any doctors either."

Nero snorted. "Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"If you say so, kid", Dante said, grabbed a towel and went back to the main room while wiping sweat off his body. "Hey Trish, don't we have any jobs to do?"

"No. I guess even demons are too tired to move because of this weather", she joked. Only a few seconds after she had finished her sentence, the phone rang in the office. "Speak of the devil and he will appear", she said and picked up the phone. "Devil May Cry"

Dante walked to Trish and the phone with quick steps when they started discussing details of the job. "Ask them if the pay's good enough to afford air-condition", he chirped.

Trish rolled her eyes with a smile and asked: "What are you ready to pay for our services? ... Yes, pay, we need to eat too", she spoke. "Uh-huh. Oh. That's generous of you, much appreciated".

"What are they saying?"

"Hush, Dante. Yeah? ... Okay. ... Okay, got it. We'll see what we can do", Trish ended the call.

"Well?" the man urged her to speak. "Can we afford air-conditioning with it?" There was so much agony and frustration in Dante's expression. Clearly he was sick of the heat and sleeping naked without a blanket and windows open.

Trish chuckled. "Yes, we can afford air-conditioning." Dante sighed in relief and threw his hands to the air, feeling victorious as hell.

"We better get going then! Hey kid!" He spoke and went to the bathroom. "We got a job! And apparently the money's pretty good. Guess what that means?"

Nero, who was now feeling a lot better and standing up, looked at Dante with bright and hopeful eyes. "Does it mean we can finally eat something else than pizza and ready foods? And eat out like you said?"

"Uhhhh well no. But hey, we can get an air-conditioning!" Dante chirped and patted the seemingly disappointed boy's back. "So let's get dressed and ready. Trish will tell the details on the way."

"You seem pretty eager to leave home today", Nero noted.

"Yeah. I don't want to be cooked alive inside my own home."

**Later**

"Feels so weird doing jobs in daylight", Dante chuckled as the three walked around the alleys. Thanks to the many shadows, the air was pleasantly cool around that part of the city. There was no sign of any demons around, but they kept looking. If they could find even a really small one, they could tell the customer that they had killed the demon and take the money even if the guy had just been paranoid.

"Your fault for wanting to leave so early", Nero said. "I doubt we'll come across anything before night."

"Well, the customer called in the morning... Though he might have called about something that happened on the night before", Trish thought. Dante and Nero nodded in agreement, and they decided to keep hanging around the city until they came across something, even if it took the whole day and some of the night.

"Hey, guys!" came a voice from behind them.

They all turned around to see who the speaker was. It was a woman with short black hair, sexy white clothing, sunglasses and a scar on her face. "Oh hi there", Dante smiled.

"What brings you all out of hiding? Look at you, like a small family on a walk. Mother, father and son", Lady said, pointing at Trish, Dante and Nero (in that order). "Where were you last May, Dante?"

'Last May?', Nero thought, but remembered. Mating season.

"You didn't come see me. You could have, I was quite bored. I was counting on having to help you with you... needs", Lady continued and took off her sunglasses with a wink.

Dante shrugged and smiled carelessly, although he could feel Nero's glare on his spine. "Sorry. I had other things to do", he said, referring to Nero. But the girls didn't know that.

"You make it sound like you **did** an animal or an object", Lady laughed.

"How can you speak about this so casually?" Nero asked, annoyed and blushing.

"Hush sweetie, adults are talking", Trish teased the boy, who went sulking into a corner somewhere.

"Why are you here anyway?" Dante asked.

"I'm on a job. Or on my way there actually. I could use a hand, though", Lady said.

"Well, I'm on a job too, so can't help you."

Lady blinked. "Oh I wouldn't take you anyway. You'd cost me more than I earn from this job", she laughed. "I was thinking of Trish. She's free right? Let's kick some girl power in demon hunting."

Trish smiled and turned to Dante. "Sorry, I got a better offer", she winked and left with Lady who turned to look at Dante and sticked out her tongue with a smirk.

Dante snorted and looked at them go. He didn't mind, really. Having Trish away meant alone-time with Nero, and one can never have too much alone-time with him. Especially for the boy who got jealous so easily, time spent with Dante was important. Dante went to look around the corners to see where the boy had gone. However, Nero was nowhere to be seen, and Dante scratched the back of his head, wondering where he could have gone. He walked to the direction where he had seen Nero walk for some time, still not seeing him anywhere. "Odd", he thought out loud. He was startled by a sudden wind carrying a familiar scent. His eyes widened and he started running against the wind. He could smell Nero's blood in the air. It was sticking out of all other smells in the wind, as Dante had learned to distinguish it well during his missions with Nero. The boy's somewhat reckless attitude made him hurt himself every now and then. The scent wasn't very strong, which meant the wound wasn't too serious, but it wasn't the blood that worried Dante, it was what had caused it. There was a strong and powerful, hostile aura in the area. As the man arrived to Nero's location, the boy was pinned down to the ground with a wound on his side, and a man was sitting on top of him, choking the younger hunter with both of his hands.

Nero's vision had started to blur. He couldn't breathe or move, his limbs felt numb. He tried desperately to gasp for air, but with no success. Suddenly with a flash of red and black passing before his eyes, the weight was lifted off him and air flowed in to his lungs again. Nero got up quickly and gasped and panted loudly. He held his throat and fell on his side to the ground and tried to calm his beating heart. Then he saw Dante. He was quite literally wrestling on the ground with the attacker. Despite Dante's brute strength, the other man proved to be a challenging opponent. That was when Nero realized he wasn't a human. It explained how the attacker had managed to sneak up on him and catch him off guard.

Dante was confused about the powerful aura surrounding the man, who looked so normal, so human, which he clearly wasn't. This wasn't his only form, why wouldn't he transform? The man started tiring out, which allowed Dante to pin him to the ground like he had seen him do to Nero. He pressed his hands tightly around his throat. "Does it feel nice? Maybe you'll know better not to mess with my partner from now on", he threatened and squeezed tighter.

The man under him stared him dead in the eye, and smiled. It wasn't a happy smile, but it wasn't a confident smile either. It was more like a smile to greet people. Dante heard a quiet, cough-like whisper leave the man's mouth as he choked him. "Dante...", it said. The tone was calm, considering the situation he was in.

Dante looked at the man and tilted his head. "Yeah?"

The man laughed in his muffled whispering voice he got from the hands around his throat. "Don't you... recogn...se me...?", he coughed. He laid his head down and relaxed. "I guess... I underst...nd... ... I... look aw...ful..." the man said in a sad tone and closed his eyes.

Dante stared at the man's face and his eyes widened in realization. Under all the layers of dirt and strange unfamiliar clothes, the man looked just like him, like he was looking at himself from a really, really dirty mirror. He let go of the man and collapsed. He just sat there, staring at the other man until Nero came walking to him. The boy didn't have difficulties in moving around, which was good, meant that he was fine.

"Dante... Are you alright...? You look... weird", Nero said and went to stand next to his loved one, who looked up at him with eyes filled with shock and confusion.

"Nero, this man... Did he say anything to you?" Dante asked. Nero thought for a while before shaking his head. He said the man had muttered something, and made a blunt sarcastic comment about being too busy being choked to death to make anything out of it. Dante placed his hand on the man's forehead, under his bangs, and swept them back just slightly. He wanted to cry. "It's Vergil", he whispered.

Nero felt his muscles tense up. He knew the story of the twins, how Dante had already lost Vergil three times. Once as a child when their mother was killed, later in Temen-ni-gru when Vergil decided to fall deeper into the demon realm and on their last encounter on Mallet Island, where Dante supposedly killed his brother, who was corrupted by Mundus. "Are you sure?" he had to ask.

"There's no mistake", Dante said and picked up his unconscious twin.

Nero looked at Dante lift Vergil on his shoulder and start walking to the direction they had come from. "Are you taking him home with us?"

Dante nodded silently. "I can't leave him here. Not like this", he said and led the way home.


	3. Vergil

Why did this chapter end up being so long? ಠ_ಠ

* * *

><p>Chapter 3. Vergil<p>

It was dark, all around him. Strange, blurred voices echoed in the darkness, coming from no clear direction. They were everywhere. He tried to move, but his legs deceived him. He reached forward but he couldn't see his hand. He wasn't sure it was even there. He tried to shout, but nothing came out. Was he even breathing? Was he even alive? The darkness became maddening, tightened its grip around his body, feeling like hundreds of hands touched him from every direction. Something cold touched his head. It spread from his forehead to the sides of his head, feeling like sharp, cold claws were cutting neat lines on his scalp.

Then it was bright again. He felt air fill his lungs with a gasp and his heart pounding hard in his chest. He realized he was staring at a ceiling, where an old ceiling fan rotated slowly, slightly on a tilt. The air was warm, and a bit thick, and had many different scents in it.

Dante looked at his brother, crouching down next to the couch he was lying on. "You're awake", he said, making Vergil sit up quickly and stare at him with a shocked expression, that soon enough turned to dizziness and pained grimace. Dante stood up to grab him by shoulders and put him back down on his back. "Take it easy, man. You're clearly not fine."

"Dante", Vergil muttered. He touched his forehead and removed a wet cloth that was placed on it. The claws in his dream had been drops of ice-cold water running down to the sides of his head. He looked around the room. He saw an old jukebox in the corner, a pool table, a wooden desk with a telephone and a framed picture on it, and weapons hanged on the wall behind the desk. There was dust everywhere, and the garbage bin in one of the corners was like those you see on the streets. Vergil frowned and stared at the annoyingly tilted fan again. "Please don't tell me you live in this dump."

"Home sweet home, right?" Dante smirked. He looked at his brother's still dirty face and hair and sat down on the floor. "Christ, Verge... What happened to you? I thought you were dead! I killed you on Mallet Island!"

"You didn't kill me. It was Nelo Angelo", Vergil said, earning a confused look from Dante. He sighed and continued to explain: "Mundus enslaved me, sure. But the thing you fought on Mallet Island was not me. Not fully. My soul was bound to it, with only a fragment of it remaining in my own body, keeping me alive and sealed off for possible further use. Nelo was wearing my half of the amulet, so that's why you-" Vergil stopped the sentence to quickly touch around his neck and chest, to realize he didn't have it. He felt Dante's hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, it's safe, I kept it", he assured him. "So what I destroyed, that thing that blew up, wasn't really you, but a replica with most of your soul bound into it?" Dante asked. Vergil nodded. "What happened to you afterwards?"

"After you destroyed Nelo Angelo, I was punished. Because 'my soul wasn't strong enough' to make the puppet kill you. I was left in the dark. Only after you had defeated Mundus I could break free", Vergil said and coughed. "But it took years to recollect the pieces of my soul that **someone** spread all across the damn island", he grunted and glared at Dante. "After some years, a group of religious fools from Fortuna came to collect pieces of Nelo Angelo's armor. I had to stay hidden, because I didn't have anything to fight with, and with my soul shattered. Those men found Yamato and stole it from me", he growled. "I followed them after I found all the pieces from the island. I followed the trace from my sword, and it brought me here... ... You have it, don't you?"

Dante looked down on the floor with a smile. "Sadly, no... I gave it away", he said and felt a hand grab him by his shirt and pull him. He was face to face with Vergil who was now sitting up again and glaring at him dead in the eye.

"You did what!?" he hissed and tightened his grip. "You 'gave away' my sword!? The only thing I had left from our father, Sparda!?" Vergil's eyes now glowed red and a blue aura had started to form around him. Both faded as quickly as they had begun, and Vergil felt his head become light, and he felt a twist in his stomach that made his body weak and he had to lean on Dante, as his hand could no longer hold his shirt in the tight grip.

Dante put him down again, this time with a really worried face. "You shouldn't get agitated in that condition. Don't worry about the sword, I know where it is. I gave it to someone so that they could hold onto it. I entrusted it to them", he explained, calming his brother's nerves.

Vergil panted. "That boy... That boy has it... ... You called him your partner..."

"Yeah... He works with me in here. Is that why you attacked him on the streets?"

Vergil nodded, still panting. "Yes... Yes, I... remember now..."

Dante looked at him closely. He sure looked awful. All the dirt and sweat, the weak, pained expression on his face... So not like Vergil... "Why are you recovering so slow? You should be fine by now."

"I don't have all... the pieces..." Vergil muttered. "I'm missing one, small piece... I could feel it... It's on the boy's sh... shoul...der..." he had started to stutter again, "merged..." he whispered and passed out again.

Dante stared at Vergil for a while before sighing. "I hate seeing you like this..." he said quietly and wiped some of the dirt off his face. "You've got to take a shower after you're back on your feet."

Nero, who had just returned from buying ice cream, heard Dante talking and went next to him and crouched down. "Is he awake?" he asked with curiosity.

"He was, a minute ago... You missed it", Dante smiled. "But I'm sure he'll be back with us soon enough."

Nero sat on the floor and stared at Vergil. He felt like he was just staring at Dante who had grown out his hair a bit and shaved his stubble. "What did he say?" Nero was a bit disappointed for not being there when Vergil had been awake. He had been really curious about the man since it was revealed that it was Dante's long-lost identical twin.

Dante was quiet for a while. "The secret between your mysteriously mutated hand, for one", he said and looked at the boy. "I, uh, accidentally blew up his soul on Mallet Island, and a tiny fragment of it found its way to your wounded shoulder. It was probably brought to Fortuna among the pieces from Nelo Angelo's armor, and it's now merged to you. Which means it can't be returned. Which is pretty sad, if you think about it", he explained. "But I'm sure he'll return to his full strength even with a piece of him missing. It'll just take a bit longer to recover from all this", Dante sighed and poked Vergil's nose. "Explains how you could restore Yamato. Which, he probably wants back from you."

Nero frowned. "But you gave it to me. And I can't trigger without it", he said, crossing his arms.

"I know, and I'm sorry, but Vergil's not exactly generous... He'll ask you for the sword once, but after that he will try to kill you to reclaim it", Dante snorted. "'Cuz that's just how Verge is."

"Huh. Well he can try fight me, but I won't give it up", Nero huffed and looked at Dante, who stared at Nero with a sad, pleading expression. He didn't want the two of them to fight. Nero sighed deeply. "Fine. But I'll try to negotiate about it first."

Dante messed with Nero's hair. "Good."

Dante told Nero everything Vergil had told him, about how he survived despite Nelo Angelo being destroyed, and how the 'religious fools from Fortuna' had come collect pieces of Nelo's armor, which Nero confirmed to be true, and in turn told Dante about Agnus's Alto and Bianco Angelos, and how fragments of Nelo Angelo were used in creating them. The two had a really long talk, during which Dante glanced both Vergil and the clock on the wall from time to time. They were interrupted as the front door opened, and Trish stepped inside Devil May Cry.

Dante stood up from his chair. "Hey Trish. Do you have the amulet I gave you?"

Trish looked at Dante and blinked a couple of times. "You mean Vergil's amulet? Of course I do. Why?" she asked and walked closer to the desk, and noticed the man he had mentioned sleeping on the couch. "Who's that?"

"That's... Vergil", Dante said and Trish gave him a really, really confused look. "Yeah, I know what you're thinking... 'Isn't he supposed to be dead', 'I saw him serving Mundus and he didn't look like that' and blah, but apparently he's not dead, and that's how he really looks like, not Nelo Angelo. I'll explain you later, but I feel like he should be given his half of the amulet back. It is a gift from our mother, after all", he said and stared at Trish for a while. "Which I think is why he shouldn't see you... Not until I explain him what you are, why you look like her, and that you're on our side. He's really weak right now, and it could be a shock..."

Trish crossed her arms on her chest. "So what would you have me do, then? Hide in a closet somewhere?"

"If you could just go to Lady's place or something... Just for a few days. You two can give each other pedicures and watch sad films and... whatever it is that you girls do", Dante laughed. "I'm sorry, but you know how I reacted when I first saw you."

Trish chuckled. "Yeah, I get it..." she said and put her hand between her breasts, making Nero blush (stupid church-education). She pulled a golden chain with a red gem at the end of it from her corset and placed it on the desk. "I'll go to have a ladies' night then. No men allowed", she said in a flirtatious tone.

Later in the evening, Dante walked downstairs and saw Vergil walking around the office, looking at the things on Dante's walls. He walked to his brother, this time not scaring the living shit out of him like when he had woken up.

"You've kept all the weapons you got from Temen-ni-gru", Vergil noted.

"Yeah. For now at least. Sometimes when it gets really tight, I have to sell them to a devil arm's dealer for some extra money", Dante laughed. "But it felt unethical to sell weapons that could talk, or the ones I've met when they were in their demon form."

"Moron", Vergil snorted. He had taken the amulet on the desk and put it around his neck. He swept back his hair, but due to its dirtyness it didn't stay in place, and fell back on his forehead. He sighed. "I really need to take a shower."

"True that", Dante said and led Vergil to the bathroom. "I'll bring you some clothes here. So you can throw away those rags you're wearing now", he offered and left his older brother to shower in peace. On his way upstairs he bumped to Nero, who was sitting in the staircase, looking down at the office through the railings. "Oh hi there", Dante greeted him and ruffled his hair. "How long have you sat there?"

Nero glanced up at Dante. "Since I heard you talking to Vergil", he chimed. His curiosity had been eased a little. "He has a funny voice."

Dante chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it's a bit unusual. But I guess it seems funny to you because you'd expect that twins have a same voice, right?" Nero nodded. Dante went to his bedroom to grab some of his clothes he thought would fit Vergil's style. His options were limited, though, because all his clothes were either red, or too modern to suit his brother's earlier Victorian kind of look. 'Well, I'm sure he'd rather wear almost anything than those dirty ragged things', he thought.

Some time later when Nero and Dante were both sitting on the couch downstairs, Vergil came out of the bathroom with his 'are-you-fucking-kidding-me' face. Dante grinned at him and chirped: "Looking good there, bro."

Vergil rolled his eyes and sighed. "Why must it always be red? This... repulsive colour", he spoke, clearly very displeased. He was wearing the clothes Dante wore when he fought Mundus years ago. His hair was now swept back, in the way it's supposed to be when we're talking about Vergil.

"I thought you'd say that", Dante shrugged. "No can do. I happen to like it. Blue doesn't suit me, so I don't have any blue clothes."

Vergil frowned. "We have the same face, Dante..."

"... True, but blue's too calm for my nature! You're not rocking that red either, to be honest."

Vergil snorted and walked straight up to Nero and stared at him in the eye for some time. "I want my sword back, kid."

Nero squinted. 'Kid'... It's the same word that Dante used at him, but Vergil's tone was so different. While Dante used it as a playful pet-name, his brother said it in an arrogant, derogatory way. He held his Devil Bringer and looked up at Vergil. "I need it."

Vergil was slightly surprised by the boy's answer, but it didn't show on his face. "Why?"

Nero frowned and looked down at his feet momentarily before turning his gaze back to Vergil. "It gives me more power."

There was a moment of silence in the room, as Vergil just kept staring at the boy, Dante stared at Vergil's expression, and Nero looked up at Vergil with his face pointing a bit downwards. Vergil sighed and rubbed his forehead. He was still tired from all the events of the day. "Dante said he entrusted you with the sword. He probably told you about your arm, didn't he?" he asked. Nero nodded. Vergil took a deep breath and walked to Beowulf, laying on Dante's shelf. Similarly to what Nero did with his Devil Bringer, Vergil absorbed the weapon inside his body, to make it accessible when needed.

"Hey, that's not yours!" Nero shouted.

Vergil turned around to stare at Nero. "Look who's talking", he pointed out. "It was originally mine. I'll come for my sword later", he said.

Dante stood up from the couch. "What do you mean 'come for your sword later'? You're not going anywhere."

"And why not? I've got nothing on you, brother", he pointed at the weapon Sparda on the wall. "You possess our father's legacy. You've earned it on your own. I've lost", he said. "We've got nothing for each other anymore. There's no competition. There's no way for me to get his power anymore."

"But you're my brother", Dante said and walked to Vergil and put his hands on his shoulders. "I know we don't see eye to eye in... many things... But you're the only family I have left. I've already lost you three times, I don't want to go through that shit again."

Vergil narrowed his eyes. "What are you getting at?"

Dante smiled with a somewhat sad frown. "You don't need to go. You could stay with us, here at Devil May Cry", he suggested. He looked at Vergil's somewhat confused face. "You don't have anywhere else to go, do you now? At least stay for some time to make up your mind." Vergil opened his mouth to say something, but Dante interrupted him. "It'll be like old times, Verge."

Vergil's expression softened significantly. He stared at Dante's hopeful smiling face, and looked away, over his shoulder. He looked at lots of stuff in the office, actually, his eyes wandered around the place as he thought about what Dante had said. He frowned and stared at the floor between them. Dante's hands were still on his shoulders. He sighed and looked at the annoyingly tilted ceiling fan. "Where do I sleep?"

Nero looked from the couch as Dante hugged Vergil letting out the breath he had held while Vergil pondered the answer. Vergil didn't hug back, but he didn't pull away either. Nero smiled. Curiosity woke up in him again, as he wondered what it would be like to live with identical twins who were so different by nature.


	4. Sex is gross

I don't know why, but I've always felt that Vergil is an ace.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4. Sex is gross<p>

Dante showed Vergil the quest room, normally used by Trish. He didn't tell him that, but Vergil noticed it anyhow, marking that the room smelled like a woman, and that he would rather sleep in a bed without the scent. So they had to change the sheets and everything, but Dante didn't complain, as he didn't want to give his older twin any reason to leave. After changing the bedding, Dante gave him some rules on how he should behave while he stayed in his place.

"First of all, since you're staying in this room, try not to go through everything in that closet. The clothes in there belong to a friend who um, stays here a lot", Dante explained.

Vergil snorted. "'A friend who stays here a lot'... Sounds suspicious, alright."

"It's not that kind of a friend... Anyways. You're free to anything in the fridge downstairs, and the bathroom of course... I don't think there's more than that to do, actually. If you want to play pool, that's fine too", Dante said and looked at Vergil and scratched his stubble. "Maybe I should bring you along on some missions so that you won't die of boredom."

"Indeed. ... That stubble is hideous, by the way."

The two went downstairs for some time, and Dante challenged Vergil to a friendly game of pool while Nero went through the stuff in his jukebox. Vergil kept complaining how boring the game was, nothing but sticking balls to holes with a long stick. Dante chuckled. Vergil always wanted to get things done quickly, while Dante liked to linger, enjoying what was going on. His smile soon faded as he remembered how much better Vergil was in accuracy and tactical thinking, when he beat him with ease, despite seeming to dislike the game.

"I haven't really even played before, and still you lost so quickly. You really suck at this, don't you", Vergil taunted with a devilish smirk on his face.

'Yup, that's the Vergil I know', Dante thought and smiled. "You know, we could try some sparring later... You have Beowulf, I'll take Gilgamesh. I bet I'll be kicking your ass in minutes."

"Oh?" Vergil hummed. "You will be kicking. The bucket."

The front doors opened and Lady walked in with a weird face. "Dante, Trish told me some strange stuff about Vergil, care to elaborate a b-" she stopped to look at Vergil, who was staring right back at her. "Vergil."

"Mary", he called her.

Lady frowned. "Never call me that again, or I'll blow your fucking head off", she growled and pointed a gun at Vergil.

"Such a heartwarming reunion we have here. What has it been already, 16, 17 years?" Dante said and walked to Lady, putting down her gun. "It's fine, Lady. Vergil's on our side now."

"I'm on no one's side, Dante. Don't go make assumptions like that out of nowhere", Vergil said.

"Well, you're not trying to kill me, and you live here, even if only temporarily. And come on, you even played pool with me", Dante laughed. "You're not the bad guy, we both know that." Vergil grunted.

"So your real name is Mary?" Nero blurted out and earned an ice-cold glare from Lady, making him shut up instantly.

Lady sighed and turned to look at Vergil again. "Red really isn't your color, is it", she smirked. Vergil glared at Dante who was trying to cover his snickering with his hand.

When Lady had left, it was already around midnight and all the white haired part-demons agreed that they needed some sleep. Nero was walking upstairs when he saw the twins. Vergil was looking at the Sparda on the wall, seeming a bit bitter about Dante having it instead of him.

Dante approached his brother from behind and said: "You should stop trying to get father's powers, Vergil. You don't need them."

Vergil turned his head around a bit. "What makes you think that?"

"You can master your own abilities, learn, master the new learned things as well, gain experiece... There are other ways to gain power."

Vergil turned to Dante completely and looked at him in the eyes as he spoke. "Think about a sparrow, Dante. A sparrow is capable of flying, it can master its techniques and become better at what it already is. But no matter how much the sparrow flies, trains and learns, it will never be as fast as a golden eagle, nor will it ever be its equal", he said and walked past Dante.

Dante looked at the floor. His brother had a point, but it wasn't the whole truth. "Sometimes", he started, stopping his brother, " when two different races breed, their offspring may be able to surpass their parents' abilities."

"Not when the other half is nothing but a worthless earthworm".

Dante snorted with an amused, yet sad face. "Ah, you're so cold..."

_ "Might controls everything – and without strength, you cannot protect anything; let alone yourself."_

Dante turned to look at Vergil, walking up the stairs. "We were kids back then, Verge. There was nothing we could've done. You need to let go."

Vergil didn't say a word, or show anykind of change in his expression as he walked past Nero, without even looking at the boy. Nero looked after him as he closed the door to the quest room behind him. "What was that about?" he whispered to Dante, who shook his head.

"I just remembered something he said to me long time ago. But let's not bring that up now... Let's go to sleep", he answered the boy and stroke his hair gently as he walked past him to the bedroom.

Nero lay on Dante's chest while the older man played with his hair, absent-mindedly. Nero looked up at the man's face and stroke his cheek. "What's the matter?" he asked.

Dante sniffed the boy's hair, closing his eyes. "We found him this morning. He hasn't been around for one day, and..." he sighed. "I just can't believe it's really him. I mean, I do believe it's really him, but it's hard to think any of this as reality... What if when we wake up tomorrow and he'll be gone? Or what if this is real, but he'll be gone anyway because he doesn't want to stay here?"

Nero pressed his face against the man's neck. "You really want him to stay, don't you?"

"Of course I do... Vergil is... quite literally, the other half of me. You know how identical twins are born, right? One baby, for some reason, halves and becomes two indentical ones. ... We were supposed to be one person", Dante laughed. "I wonder how that would've turned out..."

"That might've been interesting... You two are so different. And the conflict between red and blue..."

"Haha, yep", Dante chuckled. He hugged Nero tightly and kissed his head. "Hey, kid... I want to keep what we have in secret from him."

Nero lifted his head to look at Dante. "We're already hiding this from Lady and Trish, why Vergil too? You could make an exception for your own twin, goddamn it. And now that Trish doesn't have her room anymore, she'll have to stay somewhere else... And if Vergil knows, we won't have to hide anything..." he said and circled his finger on Dante's chest.

Dante sighed. "I just want to get along with him... Like brothers are supposed to. Like when we were little... Maybe he's homophobic. There's no way of knowing. Maybe he'll be disgusted and... start hating me or something", he muttered. "I want his acceptance."

Nero sat up on Dante and leaned close to his face, putting his hands on both sides. "You worry too much..." he said and pecked his lips gently. "You need to take your mind off Vergil for now. And I think I know just the right way to do that..." Nero smiled, leaning in to kiss him again, this time more deeply.

Dante answered the kiss, entwining their tongues. Nero moaned softly in his mouth as he caressed the boy's naked torso. They were both sweating, thanks to the summer heat. It was slightly cooler than on earlier weeks, and they could sleep with blankets (or sheets) on. Dante felt Nero's breath hot in his mouth and he rolled on the bed so that the boy was under him. "Yeah... This will do nicely", he murmured and caressed the boy's body, everywhere he knew Nero liked to be touched.

Nero tied his arms around the elder and kissed him on every chance he got. He felt the older man pull off his boxers under the cover and throw them somewhere on the floor. However, Dante left his lower half alone for now, focusing on the upper parts, such as clavicles and nipples. Dante pulled away from the kiss and licked from his collarbone up to his earlobe, nibbling on it gently, while using one hand to play with his nipple. Nero groaned softly and held the man close to him. While both usually liked it rough, it fit that night's mood to go slow and gentle, some real love-making instead of mindless fucking. He helped Dante out of his underwear and tossed them on the floor, somewhere where his own pants had landed.

Dante reached for the cupboard on his right, searching the drawers for lube. He felt Nero grab his hardened member and move his hand on it, impatiently. Dante smiled and let some air out of his nose as he took the small bottle from the drawer and closed it. He sat up and poured some lubricant on his hand and rubbed it on himself. "Do you think you need to be 'prepared' first?" he whispered with a smile. Without waiting for the boy's answer, he pushed one finger inside him, making him gasp slightly. He slid another finger in, finding the boy's sweet spot and brushing over it repeatedly, making Nero squirm and whimper under him. Dante pulled out his fingers and placed the tip of his cock on Nero's entrance, kissing him while thrusting into him to muffle the moan that left the boy's mouth.

"Dante..." Nero moaned and kissed him, sucking on his lower lip, while tightly holding onto his back. The claws of his Devil Bringer were sharp enough to leave marks on the man's back, but Dante didn't mind. He kept up a steady, calm pace, occasionally groaning on Nero's lip or his neck.

"I love you, Nero", he murmured. "I love you. And don't you ever forget that." Dante thrusted deep into his young lover with a groan.

Nero groaned and tightened his grip on the older man, drawing blood from his back with his Devil Bringer. He shut his eyes. "I love you, too...", he moaned and swallowed the extra saliva from his mouth. "... so much...! Ahh..!" he yelped and clung onto Dante. "Dante, D-Dante...!" he hissed. "I'm going to... come." Nero groaned against Dante's neck.

Dante wrapped his arms around the boy, resting his weight on his elbows while holding Nero tightly against himself and pounding into him with greater force, without speeding up the pace much. He groaned, whispering the boy's name until he came between them with a held back moan. Dante followed only two thrusts later while kissing Nero deeply, his tongue wandering in the boy's mouth. He collapsed on the boy and rolled on his side with him. "Hey", he panted, "I think we should eat out anyway", referring to what Nero had said about the money earlier.

Nero looked at Dante. "But what about the air-conditioning?"

Dante sighed. "Nah... I'll just have someone take a look at the ceiling fan... We'll get more money later anyhow..." he said and snuggled on Nero's neck. "Let's go tomorrow night. I'll let you choose the place, but please be kind on my wallet."

Nero chuckled and stroke Dante's hair. "What are you going to tell Vergil?"

"You don't really need to make up any lies for me, I already know your plans."

Both hunters sat up on the bed in shock to see Vergil in the corner near the door, eyeing a magazine that had been lying on Dante's floor. Nero covered his body in shock, though he was already covered around the most critical places, as was Dante.

"What the hell, Vergil!?" Dante cried in shock. "How long have you been sitting there!?"

Vergil turned a page in the magazine and thought for a minute. "Since I heard my name from the other room, and I came to see if you were talking about me, and lo and behold; you were. Then I sat here to listen, and you two were too busy being all cuddly to notice me, and things took an unexpected turn", he told with a frown and looked up at the two. "So I just picked up a magazine. Which is, really boring, to be honest, nothing but pictures of half dressed women holding firearms..." Vergil said and closed the magazine and tossed it away, crossing his legs. "If you're trying to keep this a secret from me, you're not doing a very good job."

Dante rubbed his forehead. "God...", he mumbled. "You seem very... calm... You're not mad, or upset or... anything? About this?"

"About what, exactly? That you were having a sexual intercourse with a male partner and, surprisingly enough, calling it love?" he asked. "I don't really care."

"Must you always use so fancy terms? It's awkward", he sighed. He was relieved, while still really embarrassed about having been actually **seen** with Nero by no other but his older twin, who seemed to show no reaction at all concerning the situation. Nero seemed even more embarrassed, as he had covered himself completely and was lying down under the covers in fetal position. Dante looked at Vergil and his eyes wandered to his crotch, just to check... "Do you even have a sex drive, Vergil?" he asked. "You just witnessed live porn... And there's nothing going on down there."

Vergil narrowed his eyes. "I don't see how that's supposed to 'turn me on'. Much less by watching **you** of all people."

Dante scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I guess, but you'd think there should be at least some kind of reaction. You just tossed away that babe-magazine like it was nothing. I know I used to tease you about how 'Vergil' rhymes with 'virgin', but have you actually ever even tried it?"

"That magazine was nothing. And as a matter of fact, no. Nor do I feel any need to do so. Besides, above everything else, it's disgusting."

"Huh", Dante snorted. "I guess I always viewed you as an asexual person, but... You're a pretty extreme case of one."

"Yes", Vergil answered bluntly and stood up from the chair. "Please go clean up. You're both covered in semen and god knows what. This smell makes me nauseous", he said and left.

Nero came shyly from out of the covers and scratched his head awkwardly. "This is... not what I had in mind when I said that we wouldn't need to hide anything from Vergil..."


	5. Chelsea

Chapter 5. Chelsea

Vergil was standing in the bathroom, his reflection staring back at him from the dirty mirror. Dante hadn't bothered to clean it, which is unsurprising considering how messy it was all around the place. Thinking back, Vergil had always cleaned his little brothers' mess as a child, because Dante never wanted to and Eva got mad at them if they hadn't cleaned their room. Vergil snorted and turned on the tap. He cupped his hands under the running water and washed his face. His peace didn't last too long, as someone walked past him straight to the toilet and threw up. He turned to look in the direction of the sound and saw Nero, trembling on his knees next to the toilet and coughing before puking in it again. Vergil looked at the boy. "Well that's disgusting," he said, wrinkling his nose.

Nero turned to look at the speaker, slightly confused because nobody else was supposed to be there, and Dante was asleep. It added to the confusion that the man with the disgusted expression shared the same face as Dante. "Dan-" he thought for a moment. "Vergil?"

Vergil returned to washing his face and closed the tap. "I know he's vulgar, but I doubt you find him **that** repulsive", he said and slicked his hair back a little better. "Since you're sleeping with him and all."

Nero blushed a little. "I... I don't know why I feel so sick from time to time... I've never had to puke before, though..." he stood up on his still wobbly legs. "... Did you sleep okay?" he decided to ask.

Vergil looked at him briefly from the reflection. "Why?" he asked with suspicion.

"Just... I thought it'd be polite to ask", Nero explained awkwardly.

The blue twin felt a slight confusion rising up in his mind. He wasn't used to be treated with 'politeness'. He'd been fighting for survival since he was eight, and after that everything and everyone had been his enemy, including his own brother. Vergil didn't know how to reply. He had read this situation on numerous different books, but now that he was in it. It would seem stupid not to say anything. "... I suppose it was alright", he stated calmly.

Nero nodded. "I'm going to get something to eat... I'm starving", he said and went to the bathroom door.

Vergil turned up his nose again. "Flush the toilet before you leave." By sound he knew without looking that the boy turned on his heels and went to flush, having forgotten about it earlier. He snorted and waited for him to leave, only to follow a moment later.

Dante woke up somewhere around twelve and walked downstairs without shoes or socks and wearing his black shirt open. His hair was really messy and his eyes were only half-open.

"I see you still look like death after waking up", Vergil noted and turned a page on the magazine he was reading. "Are these magazines really all you have to read here? I don't even use firearms. You should get some books."

Nero, who was sitting on the other end of the couch, looked up at Dante who walked to the mini-fridge near them. "He's not wrong. You know. I've read them all five times through."

Dante took a beer from the fridge and flipped the cap off. "Well aren't you two getting along nicely", he mumbled. His voice was hoarse from all the hours he had slept. "Anything else you'd like, princess?" The question made Nero snort in amusement. He thought it was nice to see Dante treating Vergil like anyone else instead of being careful not to chase him away like on the day before.

"Well, since you asked..." Vergil stated and closed the magazine. A quiet 'oh no' left his brother's mouth as he sipped on his beer, but Vergil ignored that. "I want new clothes. I don't want to keep wearing this ridiculous attire. Even Mary agreed it didn't look good on me", he complained and looked around the messy office. "And possibly a maid."

"You should call her Lady from now on... She hasn't been Mary for such a long time", Dante said. "But you're right. It feels stupid just looking at you with those on. I guess we'll have to go meet the person who makes my clothes", Dante said and rubbed his eyes.

Nero looked at Dante with a questioning face. "You have your clothes made somewhere?"

"But of course. I don't want to see anyone wearing same stuff I have on. I'm special", Dante chuckled and emptied the beer bottle. "And I'm sure Verge here doesn't want to wear mainstream modern stuff either. Modern doesn't suit him anyway. Let's go when I've eaten something."

"Wait a second, Dante", Vergil spoke, "You expect me to go out in public wearing **these**?"

"Not showing up in public, no new clothes", Dante winked. "Brush your hair down to look like me or something if you don't want to be recognized."

Vergil snorted. "By who?"

Dante thought for a while. "Yeah, you don't really know anyone... Kinda sad if you think about it."

"Do I look sad to you?" Vergil grunted. "No wait. Don't answer."

A bit later Dante called the tailor that, apparently, had been making him clothes since he was 18. Not all the clothes, though, just the ones he uses regularly, the red coat and all that. They left to see the tailor, who had sounded very excited to work on something Dante had described; elegant, victorian or renaissance or baroque (Dante wasn't entirely sure what the difference even was), and blue.

"This is where she lives?" Vergil asked with a frown as he looked around the hallway of an old apartment house that didn't even have an elevator. "Are you serious?"

"Yup. You shouldn't judge someone by the area they live in. Like c'mon, you've seen my place, does that define who I am?" Dante asked with a confident smile.

"That's an understatement."

Nero laughed and hid it behind his Devil Bringer. "I'm beginning to like this guy", he snickered.

Dante snorted. "Yeah, anyway... She's great", he said and ringed the doorbell.

Only a few seconds later the door blew open and a young woman was standing behind it, out of breath and glasses out of place. Her red hair was on a messy topknot and needles and hairpins were sticking out of it. She had a very excited smile on her face. She stretched out her hand at Vergil very enthusiastically. "You must be Dante's brother! My name's Chelsea, what's your name?" she nearly giggled out of excitement.

Vergil didn't even look at the hand. "Vergil", he answered.

Chelsea pulled her hand back with a snort. "Tough guy, huh? I can work with that..." her eyes met Nero's and a wide smile rose on her lips. "Awww, who's this then? Is he yours?" he asked and turned to look at Vergil, whose expression turned very weirded out.

"Preposterous..." he grunted. His casual use of fancy words clearly added to Chelsea's excitement. "If I had a son who was sleeping with my brother, I would- mmph!" Dante's hand was pressed on his mouth before he could finish his sentence.

"Um... Forget about that, he's just kidding... Right Verg- ow!" Dante looked at Vergil's direction. His older twin had dug his teeth into his hand and was drawing blood. He released the hand and spit the blood from his mouth on the dirty old carpet floor in the hallway and stared at Dante with cold eyes, which Dante clearly understood as a 'don't ever do that again'. "... Sorry", he chuckled.

"Ooh, cold, sophisticated, violent..." Chelsea shivered with excitement. "Well don't just stand there, get in here! I already sketched out some ideas while waiting for you", she giggled and pulled the group in. The apartment had many different colored and styled fabrics lying around the tables and floors, as well as boxes full of different kind of buttons and ribbons. She pushed the three down and sat between Vergil and Nero with a sketch book. "I wasn't sure which kind of blue you wanted, so I listed different color charts here. And some other matching colors here. And materials and sketches and..." the list went on and on.

Vergil looked at Dante over Chelsea's shoulder with a still suspicious expression. "You're sure about this?"

Dante smiled. "Just look at my clothes, these are by her. They're cool, right?"

"You do realize you're wearing chaps... You look like you're from a wild west movie", Vergil grunted.

"Yeah, haha, I thought it would suit him, and it did!" Chelsea laughed. "But don't worry, I won't make you look like the star of a bad vampire drama", she said and put the sketch book on Vergil's lap.

After hours of discussion, sketching, planning, testing and taking measurements, Vergil and Chelsea were done with planning his new clothes. On their way back home, they went to pick up some take-away pizzas Dante had ordered while they were still at Chelsea's.

"Weren't you two supposed to eat out tonight?" Vergil pointed out.

"Yeah, why?" Dante asked.

"You gave her money. As far as I understand, you're not exactly wealthy", the blue twin said and turned to look at the red one. "Where'd you get that?"

"Oh, that... Yeah, that's just some money I borrowed from Lady some time ago. I was going to return that to her, but... I guess I owe you for blowing you up and all", Dante laughed. "But hey, thanks for reminding me", he said and put the pizzas he was carrying on Vergil's hands. "You know the way home. Don't eat everything while we're gone", he grinned and took Nero's hand and left with the smiling boy while waving at his brother. Vergil snorted and turned around to walk to the office with the pizza boxes.

Nero leaned his head on Dante's shoulder as they walked towards the city center. "Wasn't that a bit mean?" he chuckled.

"Oh come on... You laugh when he makes fun of me, but when I make him walk home on his own it's mean? Whose side are you on?" the older man snorted. "Don't go leaving me for my twin, because that would hurt."

"Of course not! If I was with Vergil, I would have no one to take care of certain, hmm, needs..." Nero murmured and drew a circle on Dante's chest with his finger.

"Ugh, don't do that when we're going somewhere in public..." Dante groaned with a smile. "A little more and I'll have to do you in a toilet somewhere."

"Pfft. It's not even **mating season** anymore. I can't believe I had to hear about that from Trish. You could've at least warned me before that month. I swear my hips were sore throughout May..."

"Stop reminding me..." Dante sighed. "It was embarrassing, okay? Gosh... Admit it, you loved every bit of it", he teased.

"Hah. Let's just go eat now. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!"

"Remember what I said about being kind to my wallet, kid."


	6. Bonding?

I actually had to draw Vergil's clothes to be able to write them, so I hope you all appreciate the effort :| I also noticed I have a habit of skipping the daytime in this fic, it's always morning first and then it's suddenly evening...

* * *

><p>Chapter 6. ... Bonding?<p>

A few weeks later, Vergil's peaceful solitary morning was interrupted again, as Nero appeared at the door, pale as ghost and hair glued on his face with sweat. Vergil followed the boy with his eyes as he walked to the toilet seat and sat down on the floor next to it. "Are you going to throw up again? This has become a routine for you, hasn't it?" the man asked.

Nero panted and leaned on the toilet with his eyes closed. "I don't know", he answered with a shaky voice. "Maybe I felt better if I did..." Nero put his face over the toilet and sticked his fingers in his throat, triggering the gag reflex and forcing everything out of his stomach.

Vergil wrinkled his nose in disgust as response to the gagging noises. He sighed and turned to look at the miserable boy. "Does Dante know about this?" Nero shook his head. "Why?"

The boy coughed. "I don't want to make him worry over nothing..." he stuttered.

Vergil crouched down next to the boy, flushing the toilet while doing so. "You're vomiting every morning. I don't think that's nothing."

Nero looked up at the older man. There was no hint of concern in his eyes, but apparently he cared enough to make sure he was fine. Or maybe he just thought it was 'polite'. "I guess... But... Dante said he couldn't afford any doctors, so even if I told him, he couldn't do anything about it."

"Are you even serious or are you arquing with me just for fun?" Vergil asked.

"I-I'm serious! We couldn't pay for it, I'm sure. You wouldn't know, you or Dante have probably never needed doctors or hospital care", Nero mumbled.

The blue twin stood up and straightened his clothes. "Who said you have to pay for it? Break in and do what you must."

"... Dante would never let me do that..."

Vergil stood in front of the mirror and swept his hair in better position. "Well, I'm not Dante", he said. Nero smirked, still sitting on the floor. "Do you have anything else you should be worried about, other than vomiting?"

"Yeah, well, I've noticed this... weird... swelling on my abdomen..." Nero mumbled and lifted his shirt a little to look at his belly area.

The man frowned. "That's something you should inspect. It could be cancer, poison... parasite demon... Many things."

Nero put his shirt back down and thought for a while. "You're... surprisingly helpful. Is there a reason for that, or... what? No offense, but I find it hard to believe that you'd be this talkative out of kindness", he asked.

Vergil didn't bother turning to look at the boy before answering. "If it happens to be something serious and you'll die, I'd be responsible for it since I never told Dante you've been sick. Not only that, but it would be me who'd have to watch Dante mourn your death and stop him from following you out of grief. It's obvious you mean a lot to him."

The boy smirked. It wasn't him Vergil was worried about, it was Dante. He didn't dare to make a comment about it to Vergil, though. Nero looked up at the man. It wasn't until now that he realized Vergil was wearing blue. "Hey, are those the clothes you had Chelsea make for you?" he asked. "You look good", the boy blurted out by accident.

The older man snorted as a response to the compliment. "Yes, she came to drop these in this morning. A strange woman, that one", Vergil mumbled.

The coat he was wearing was the same tone of blue as his earlier long coat during the Temen-ni-gru incident. There were many similarities between the two outfits in general, which is why Vergil had chosen as he did. The coat was three tailed and the inside was gold-colored as well as the seams and buttons on it. The coat had dark blue lapels with small golden buttons on both sides, and the sleeves had cuffs of the same color with two buttons on them. The middle part of his back, from shoulders to the end of the middle tail was also covered in the same dark blue. It resembled the dark red material Dante had on his coat's shoulders and back. The shirt Vergil wore under the coat was mostly identical to Dante's, the only differences being the lack of sleeves and a zipper, and the buckled straps that didn't go around his torso like Dante's, but stopped on slimming seams running down the sides. The coat had same kind of seams on its sides as Dante's did, and clearly Chelsea had been going for a twin-look, which Nero found somewhat amusing but still quite adorable. Vergil's trousers were plain, same colored as the vest, only darker. He wore knee-length brown boots with more buttons on their sides. Similarly to Dante, Vergil also used fingerless gloves, except his were light brown.

Nero stood up from the floor, knowing his legs would be wobbly for some time. "I'll go tonight, then... Don't tell Dante. If he asks where I am, then tell him I'm... out."

Vergil snorted. "How creative", he said mockingly.

The boy scratched the back of his head and looked at Vergil. The man wasn't exactly social, but Nero felt like he needed attention and company that morning, so he continued bothering him instead of leaving the bathroom like he usually did after throwing up. "Has Dante talked to you about Trish yet?"

"Should I know who that is?"

"Don't you remember her?" Vergil stared at Nero with a weird look and a frown. "She was on Mallet Island. I... I figured that since most of your soul was tied on Nelo Angelo, you could perhaps have seen through his eyes, at least from time to time. So did you...?" Nero inquired.

Vergil glared at the boy. "You'll have to excuse me for not wanting to think back to that time", he grunted.

Nero felt slightly embarrassed for even asking. "Yeah, yeah of course, sorry..." he stuttered. He scratched his nose with his human hand. "Hey, since there's that fragment in my shoulder and all... You can't see what I see or think, right?"

The man sighed, obviously irritated by the stupid question. "Of course not, you half-wit", he growled.

Nero bit his lip awkwardly and looked away. "Yeah uhh... I'll be going now... Gotta wake up Dante and everything..."

Vergil looked at the boy leave and snorted. 'Dante entrusted Yamato to that... child', he thought bitterly. He looked at himself from the mirror and traced his fingers under his eyes. Years had left their mark for sure, but thank god it didn't show much. How old were they anyway, 35, 38? It had been hard to keep count while being locked in darkness, barely conscious. He did look slightly younger than Dante. 'Since I don't have that hideous stubble', Vergil thought and smiled slightly.

Around 11 o'clock, Dante walked downstairs and noticed his older brother sitting on the couch, going through one of the few magazines lying around the place with an extremely bored face. Dante chuckled as he walked to his twin. "Looking good there, bro", he noted. He sat down next to him, so close that the nearness made Vergil move slightly further away from him. "Look uh... Nero reminded me to tell you about Trish this morning. Which I really should've done earlier since she's coming here today. To pick up some of her stuff."

"He mentioned someone by that name. Asked if I remember her from Mallet Island. Which I don't, if you were wondering that too", Vergil spoke and threw away the magazine. He had given up trying to keep the place from getting any messier, as it didn't seem to have any kind of effect.

Dante nodded. "That's good, actually, you two can start from a clean table. Before I say anything else, I want you to remember throughout the story that she's on our side, and would never plot against any of us or try to harm us in any way. She's a real sweetheart."

"Could you be more omnious?" the blue twin said sarcastically.

"Heh, sorry. I'll keep this short: Trish is a demon created by Mundus made identical to our mother to lure me in his trap, so obviously she stabbed me in the back, but I saved her life anyway, and then later she betrayed Mundus and saved my life, and then after I defeated Mundus she apologized and then we escaped together on an old biplane and she moved to live with me", Dante explained.

Vergil stared at him. "Your story-telling skills are close to those of a 10-year-old."

"Yeah, I guess, but I told you I'd keep it short. Did you even listen, though?"

"Trish is a demon who looks like our mother and somehow went from evil to good and moved here. Yes, I did", the older twin confirmed. "And I'm guessing it's her room where I'm staying in, making her the 'friend who stays here a lot'."

"Yup. I had to kick her out for you, so be grateful. I've been talking about this with her, and she's agreed to stay with another devil hunter from now on, but expect to see her around the office sometimes. She should be here in..." Dante said and looked at the clock. At the same time the doors opened and steps on heels echoed around the room. "Huh. Now", the younger twin chuckled and looked at the woman dressed in leather and sunglasses.

Nero followed the situation behind Dante's desk. He noticed Trish ask for a permission with her gesture, and get a nod from Dante before she removed her sunglasses. As soon as Trish so much as touched the glasses, Nero quickly turned to look at Vergil to study his expression. Despite already knowing what to expect, the man flinched visibly, and his eye twitched as he took a deep breath. It was clear that the resemblance between Trish and the twins' mother was astounding and triggered something in Vergil. Dante was already used to it, so there was no reaction on his side.

Trish bent over to look at Vergil's face closer. "So, this is the infamous evil twin I've heard so much about", she chuckled and studied Vergil's appearance closely before standing up straight again. "You look much better now that you're all cleaned up. When I first saw you, you were barely recognizable thanks to all the dirt on your face."

Vergil glared at the woman's face. He hated it. Hated with passion. He felt like he could bash her against anything nearby to get rid of the resemblance that brought the annoying burning sensation in his chest, caused by sorrow and anger.

Dante seemed to notice his brother's discomfort and stood up from the couch. "Okayyy. Let's go get your stuff from Vergil's room", he said and led Trish away from Vergil.

"Oh, 'Vergil's room', is it? What happened to 'Trish's room' or 'quest room'?" Trish teased.

"Well, Verge, obviously."

"How come you don't have a pet name like that?"

"Try to make a pet name out of 'Dante'... It's not that easy."

Vergil looked at the two walk further from him while talking nonsense like that. He sighed and leaned back on the couch and rubbed his templates with his eyes closed.

Nero looked at the blue twin. He wasn't emotionless for sure, but for some reason he had decided to keep his feelings hidden. 'Maybe if he was more open and social, he would be more like Dante', Nero wondered.

Much later in the evening when Trish had left with her belongings (Dante was afraid to let her stay very long) and the sun had set, Nero walked upstairs and met Dante in the short corridor. "Dante? Why aren't you in bed?" he asked. Dante silenced him and motioned him to come closer. "What is it?" Nero whispered as he walked to the older man, who pointed his finger to the open quest room. The boy peeked in and saw Vergil. He was frowning and grasping onto his pillow, but he was clearly asleep. The man twitched from time to time and growled in his sleep. Nero turned to look at Dante. "Is he having a nightmare?"

Dante nodded. "I had a feeling something like this would happen... Seeing Trish brought back memories for me too. Vergil always was 'mom's favorite', always clinging onto her.", he chuckled. "Then the demons attacked and wrecked the whole place. Mother hid me, and I thought she did the same with Vergil. But when the fight was over, mom was dead and he was nowhere to be found, and I assumed him dead as well."

Nero looked up at the man. "Why tell me this now?"

Dante looked inside the room. "I have a theory why he grew up to be so cold and ruthless. He wasn't like that when we were kids. He was headstrong, sure, and smart too, but he was caring. I remember being annoyed with him constantly trying to watch that nothing happened to me, because it was 'his responsibility' 'cause he was older, even if only by a couple of minutes... Since I couldn't find either him or Yamato after the attack, I think he tried to defend himself and got dragged into the demon world." Nero looked at Vergil sleeping restlessly in the other room. "I think his current personality is built on the trauma of being violently separated from his family and left alone to fight for survival among demons and trying to find his way out. We were eight years old, back then. 8-year-olds are supposed to go to school and color pictures with crayons..." Dante muttered. "He says humans are weak, and that's why mom died; she couldn't defend herself. But he himself told me, that without strength you can't protect anything, which I think is why he was originally so hungry for more power: to be able to defend himself and protect the ones close to him. But in the end he was left with no one to protect." The man sighed. "Or maybe I'm just over-analyzing him... I've been thinking about this kind of stuff for years."

Nero took Dante by hand and leaned on him. "You don't need to worry about him, Dante. He has a place to stay now, and you taking care of him. He'll be alright", he whispered. "Maybe you could talk to him about this sometime and clear things out. But now we shold go to sleep."

Dante smiled. "Yeah."

Some time later, Dante was laying in his bed, Nero already asleep beside him. He stared at the ceiling drowzily and waited for sleep. He heard a thud coming from the room across the corridor followed by a quiet whimper. Dante looked at Nero and get out of the bed carefully so that he wouldn't wake up.

Vergil lay down on his bed, covering his eyes with his hand. A moment after he had woke up he had thrown the lamp off the cupboard simply because it annoyed him. Tears had wetted his cheeks and faint sobs still escaped every now and then. He cursed in his mind, swimming in hate and grief and trying his hardest to calm down.

"Vergil", said a soft voice from the door. "Are you alright?"

The man stopped moving. He'd recognized the voice as his brother, and turned his head lower and covering his eyes better. This situation was embarrassing for him. Crying over a nightmare? No way Dante needed to know about it. He nodded slightly to answer the question.

Dante walked inside the room and sat down on the bed. "Look, there's nothing to be ashamed of. I know you were having a nightmare, and I know it was about what happened when we were small, but it's alright now."

"Shut up."

"What?"

Vergil took a deep breath. "If you have to sit there, then do, but please... Be quiet. Don't say anything." Dante didn't answer, but Vergil knew he had nodded. Vergil uncovered his face, wiping away what was left of his tears. He didn't want to admit, but Dante's presence was really comforting. A few minutes passed with neither of them saying anything. "We couldn't save her", Vergil mumbled.

"No. We couldn't."

The response made Vergil smile, almost laugh while not knowing if he should cry instead. He rubbed his eyes with this happy-sad grin on his face before looking at Dante with his usual expression. "Hey, Dante... What..." he held a small pause, and his twin turned to look at him. "What happened to you after the attack?" Vergil asked.

Dante was quiet for a while. "I ran away. Some townsfolk came to search the ruins, and I was afraid to face them. I grabbed Rebellion and escaped the scene, and wandered around since then, doing odd jobs for food. I couldn't stay anywhere because adults always wanted to take the sword away from me. That's when I decided to become a devil hunter, to make sure no one else would have to suffer like we did because of demons", he spoke and turned to look at Vergil again. "What about you?"

Vergil sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I got trapped in the demon world", he said, confirming what Dante had suspected. "It took me two whole years to get out. I don't know how I even survived that long. After that I begun my research on Sparda and how to get his powers."

"Nine years of research, huh. Not bad."

Vergil smiled. "Maybe. But it was all for nothing", he laughed with a sad frown and looked at the ceiling. "It's the irony of fate. I spent years and years to traveling and doing research and gained nothing but useless knowledge, while you, who didn't even want the power had a successful and happy life, and were able to obtain our father's legacy, the very key to his powers."

Dante looked down at the floor. "I was surprised you didn't take it when you realized I had it. You didn't even take Yamato back from the kid."

"What's the point?"

Dante frowned. "You can't just give up like that. Maybe you didn't get his powers, but there are other things to live for. You have a place to call home and a family, and a job if you want it."

Vergil stared at the ceiling. "How long can I stay here?"

"Let's see. If it was up to me, hmm... Indefinitely."

The blue twin snorted. "Are you serious?"

"Absolutely. It's about time we start treating each other like brothers should. You watch my back and I watch yours and so on. And since you allowed Nero to keep Yamato, you could teach him how to use it. You're the expert on that matter, anyway", Dante said and stood up. "I think we should both get some sleep. It's really late, and according to Nero you always wake up super early", he mumbled and walked to the door.

"Hey, Dante..." Vergil stuttered. "I... ... Thank you. For... forgiving me and letting me stay here. After everything I've done..."

Dante turned to look at his twin with a smile. "Anytime. Now go to sleep", he whispered and left.


	7. Dark Slayer Style

It's not really too hard to guess what's wrong with Nero :D That's what the warning for weirdness is for. If you still haven't guessed, then you will after reading this author's note thingy, because it's kinda obvious. ... Well for me at least, haha.

* * *

><p>Chapter 7. Dark Slayer Style<p>

Nero woke up early again, which wasn't really a surprise. Slight waves of nausea moved around his body, making him groan quietly and get up from the bed. Dante was still snoring happily, completely unaware of this morning routine. Nero walked down the stairs and directly to the bathroom, where he knew Vergil would be, as he was every morning at this hour. Instead of sitting down next to the toilet or throwing up immediately as he usually did, Nero went to lay down on his back and lifted his feet against the wall, which he realized was wet. "You took a shower", he noted.

Vergil, who was not wearing his coat at the time, stopped drying his hair for a moment to glance at Nero. "I did. Why aren't you on your knees like usual?" His hair was messy from being wiped on the towel, and his bangs just kinda dangled over his eyes.

"I'm not feeling **that** sick today. I'll just wait for it to pass", Nero answered and looked at the man. This was the first time he saw Vergil not covered from head to toes: his whole arms were unclothed and the vest was open, allowing Nero to see some muscles through the mirror's reflection. The man fit, but not as strongly built as Dante, which was fairly understandable, since there hadn't been as much action in his life lately as there was in Dante's. Plus, Yamato seemed far lighter to wield than Rebellion, although it probably didn't make much of a difference to two half-demons...

"Did you break into the hospital last night?" Vergil asked.

Nero frowned and sighed. "Yeah... I had to get Dante to believe I was asleep and wait for him to sleep too before I could leave. He left wandering somewhere in the middle of the night so it took a bit longer than I would have preferred..."

Vergil looked at the boy while buttoning up his vest. "And?"

"Well, I did an x-ray and ultrasound on myself, which wasn't easy, especially when I had to be careful not to get caught... I'm glad it was a quiet night and nothing happened at the hospital. There weren't even many doctors present."

"... And then? Did you find anything from there?"

Nero sighed again. "I did... I... Need to talk to Dante about all this..."

"Is it bad?" the blue twin asked with growing curiosity.

The boy looked at his stomach area and pressed his hand against it. "Yeah... ... I need some time to... think..."

Vergil looked at the sad and confused boy lying down on the wet floor. He swept his still wet hair back and turned his gaze down at the sink. For some time it was really quiet in the bathroom since none of the said a word. Vergil was the first to speak. "Are you planning on returning Yamato to me, boy?"

"'Boy'..." Nero snorted. "I don't know if that's worse or better than 'kid'... I thought I made myself pretty clear when you asked for it last time", he said and turned to look at the older man, who was now glaring back at him. The boy felt intimidated by the cold eyes directed at him. "Why do you even want it back so bad? It's just a sword."

"Just a-" Vergil snorted, sounding amused by the remark. "That sword was once carried by the Legendary Dark Knight himself and used to separate demon world from this one. It's a memento from our father, forged from dark demonic material, sharper than any sword and imbued with magic", he growled and walked towards the boy still lying down on the ground. Nero was sure Vergil would hurt him for mocking his beloved weapon and prepared to block whatever attacks would come his way, knowing, however, that in a real fight Vergil could probably take him down as easily as Dante. The man stopped only a step away from the boy. He stared at him dead in the eye for a short while, before sighing and letting go of the hostile aura surrounding him. He turned on his heels and walked back to the sink, leaning on it and staring down into the drain.

Nero relaxed his tensed muscles and looked at the man. He'd clearly hit a nerve. "For a moment there I thought you were going to hit me."

"I was", Vergil admitted with a grunt.

The boy blinked a few times. "What stopped you?"

The blue twin sighed. "... I owe Dante too much", he mumbled and rubbed his forehead eyes closed. He straightened his back and streched his arms forward. "He proposed that I'd teach you how to use Yamato properly, since you're keeping it for yourself. At least for now", Vergil said and glanced at Nero. "If you're interested... Then, I suppose I could try. I don't have much faith in your capability of learning, though, considering how easily you were subdued by an unarmed half-demon in weakened state", he smirked.

Nero frowned and jumped up from the floor. "Hell yeah I'm interested! I'll make you choke on your words", he declared with a confident grin. Vergil raised his hand on Nero's eye-level and gave a sharp fillip on his forehead. It wasn't like a regular one he'd gotten from Credo sometimes, but much more powerful, and by Sparda that **hurt**.

"You're too rash", Vergil stated calmly. "Find me when you're ready", he said and left the bathroom.

The boy rubbed his now aching forehead. He went in front of the mirror and looked at the spot he'd been flicked on and noticed a still reddening mark. "Ah, damn it... Ow..." he muttered. 'What the hell was that about, anyway', he wondered. Vergil didn't do it out of anger, more like to... show who's boss? Maybe as a sign that he'd accepted Nero as a student? Yeah, that sounded more like Vergil. Thinking about Dante, a fillip on forehead would be a playful way of saying something like: 'you're alright, kid', so maybe it wasn't that different with Vergil... Though, the student thing seemed more likely. Nero shook his head with a smile. Whatever it was, he took it as a sign of alliance.

Dante woke up to a racket coming from downstairs. He looked around him for a while, trying to listen if the sound would be repeated. After a moment of silence he was convinced that he'd dreamed it and turned on his side and pulled the blanket up to his ears. Less than two seconds passed before another loud noise came from below him, and it became clear that it wasn't a dream after all. Dante groaned as he got up from the bed. He dressed up and grabbed Coyote-A from the nightstand and went to stand on top of the staircase to look down to the main room.

"You're still too slow", Vergil reproached and clicked his tongue.

Nero frowned. "I'll get it right, just watch", he grunted and went to rearrange the pile he'd just slashed down.

"What the heck are you two doing at this hour?" Dante asked and put his armed hand down.

Vergil looked up to the staircase. "Good news, brother. I found a way to reuse all the trash you've been piling up in here", he said and pointed at the pile of empty bottles and boxes Nero was arranging back up.

Dante blinked as he noticed Nero holding Yamato with his Devil Bringer. "Are you teaching him?" he asked.

The older twin nodded. "It wasn't that horrible idea. And since you still haven't got anything interesting to read, there's little else to do", he turned to look at Nero. "But the progress is very slow with this one..."

Nero turned around to glare at his teacher. "Give me a break, man, I'm trying!"

Dante chuckled and walked down the stairs and put the shotgun on his desk. He sat down and leaned on his elbows. "Are you going to teach him that teleport-thingy?"

The boy looked at Vergil with big, curious eyes. "You can teleport?"

"Short distances..." Vergil said. "But I don't know if you'll be able to learn it. I doubt it. Without the power you've lent from me, there's very little demon in you."

Dante rested his chin on his hands and looked at Vergil with fake hopefulness and admiration. "Can you teach me how to teleport?" he asked, jokingly batting his eyelashes at him.

Vergil frowned at his brother. "No. You can already dash fast enough to fake it", he stated with a sigh. "Let's take a break now. I'll have to think something easier for you to practice before you can improve your speed", he said to Nero, who agreed with slight disappointment.

"Heads up!" Dante shouted and just barely missed Vergil with a downwards attack from Gilgamesh.

"What are you doing?" Vergil asked after dodging the surprise attack.

"I promised you sparring, didn't I? I had forgotten about it", Dante grinned and charged in with another kick, clearly aimed to Vergil's face. His brother didn't move, but instead unsheated Beowulf and blocked the kick with his left hand while reaching for Dante with the right one. Dante dodged by jumping away from Vergil with some sort of acrobatic move.

"Not bad, for an old man like you..." Nero muttered.

"Hey, Vergil's older than me, so when you call me old, you call him old too", Dante smirked.

Nero smiled. "Do I look like I care?"

Dante didn't have a chance to answer, as a clean punch landed on his jaw, forcing him back a few steps. "Agh", he grunted and turned his head towards Vergil.

"Don't get distracted now, brother", the man with swept hair said with a devilish grin. "First one on his knees loses."

"I was gonna say first one to land five hits wins", Dante smiled. "But if that's how you want to play, then so be it."

"Five hits is all I need to make you kneel", Vergil taunted and went in for another attack.

Nero went to sit in the staircase to watch the fighting. Neither of the two held back or kept pauses to talk to each other after the duel truly started. Both had the same frown and smirk on their face as they fought, and seemed to really enjoy it. Nero studied their techniques and compared them. Dante seemed to prefer heavy, not so elegant attacks while still retaining speed and agility. Vergil, on the other hand, used far more complex moves with ease, creating not only effective but also fast and beautiful attacks. No wonder Dante called him princess. Keeping an eye on their styles was quickly forgotten when Dante managed to cause a bleeding wound on his brother's bare shoulder.

"Too slow", the red twin taunted.

Vergil only smirked and kept going as if nothing had happened. Eventually after some time of combat that looked really brutal considering it was just sparring between brothers, Vergil drew blood from Dante's cheek. "Whoops", he grinned mischievously.

After this the fight only got more intense, causing many other wounds on both twins equally, while Nero was getting a little worried about the outcome. The twins kept bashing each others on walls around them and endured hits that would cause an average human to lose consciousness. Blood splattered on the floor from time to time, and both brothers had started to breathe through their mouth. Especially Vergil seemed to get tired. After all, he'd spent many many years doing nothing, so it wasn't a surprise his combat skills would be a little rusty. Dante noticed the weakening on his brother's attacks and took a chance to strike him down. Before he could hit the target, Vergil suddenly disappeared in front of him, only to reappear behind him and land a heavy kick on the back of his knees, forcing Dante down on all fours. Before he could recover, Vergil stepped on his back and made him fall down on the floor.

"I won", the blue twin panted as he lifted his foot off his little brother.

Dante panted and looked up at Vergil. "Yeah... ... You cheat..." he laughed.

"You never forbade teleporting", Vergil smiled and pulled Dante up by his hand.

The younger twin panted slightly. "I missed this, you know."

"The feeling's mutual. It's been really boring without this... brotherly competition", Vergil admitted.

Nero looked at the two bleeding men with smiles on their faces. "... You two okay?" he asked.

"Better than okay", Dante grinned and gave him a thumbs up. "Why don't you come here for a rematch? You might have a better chance of winning now that I've been defeated once already."

The boy wanted to go, but he didn't dare. "Nah, I think I'm good", he said with a smile. As Dante turned his look away, Nero placed his hand on his abdomen. 'Goddamn it...' he cursed in his mind.


	8. Revelation

For some reason I had lots of trouble writing this chapter. I couldn't come up with anything ._. But I managed to finish it anyway. Yay

* * *

><p>Chapter 8. Revelation<p>

"Ouch, haha", Dante chuckled as Nero wiped his wounds clean. "Just so you know, I would've beaten him if I'd known he was going to teleport around." Nero smiled a bit but returned to his earlier absent-minded look. Dante looked at the boy with a frown. He lifted his feet off the floor and crawled backwards in the middle of the bed he was sitting on and patted a spot next to him, inviting Nero closer. The boy climbed on the bed next to the older man who was staring at him with a concerned face. "Okay, kid... What's the matter? You've been gloomy for some time now, don't think I haven't noticed."

Nero looked up at the older man with a sad frown. He looked down at his hands and twiddled his thumbs a little. "We... we need to talk..." the boy said quietly.

Dante's face turned even more worried. "... Is it... Have I done something or... If so, then I'm sorry I swear I didn't mean-"

"No, oh no, nothing like that!" Nero said. "It's not you it's..." the boy sighed. "... It's kinda hard to explain..."

The older man moved closer to the boy and put his legs around him and took him into a warm embrace. "Just take your time, it's alright", he murmured. Nero was quiet for some time before he reached for his hip pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He gave the paper to Dante with a sigh. The man took the paper and unfolded it. "What's this? ... A baby? This is an ultrasound picture, isn't it?" Dante asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah... It's... About the size of an apple now..." Nero muttered.

"Huh... Where'd you get this?"

Nero looked up at the man and glanced around the room. "I'm... Dante... Uh... ... It's yours."

Dante looked at the boy with confusion. "What?" He stared at him with a shocked expression, processing what Nero had just said. "Th-that's not possible! I haven't cheated on you, how's th- I-" Dante stuttered, trying to find words fitting the situation. "... Are you fucking with me?"

The boy looked down and placed his hands on his belly. "I wish I was... I took that ultrasound of my own abdomen last night. I don't know how this is even possible, but I-"

"Wait a second", Dante interrupted. "... Where did you get an ultrasound taken?"

"Well I broke into the hospital when you were asleep and-"

"You **broke** in!?"

"Vergil told me to! But that's beside the point!" Nero groaned and hid his face on his hands. "I'm a guy, and somehow still pregnant with your child, Dante, and you worry about something like that?" He leaned on the older man's chest, sort of climbing on his lap while doing so.

Dante held the boy closely against him, eyes still wide open. "... Sorry, I'm just... really confused right now, and... kind of focusing on the facts that I understand..." He felt Nero's abdomen with his palm. "There really is a lump down here... ... But how? We are both men. ... Right?"

"Don't you think you would've noticed if I had something extra?" Nero sighed. "I don't know how... I'm just as confused as you are."

Dante thought for a long while before opening his mouth again. "What do you want to do about all this? Have you thought about it yet?"

"It's the only thing I've been able to think about since I took that pic", the boy muttered and pointed at the ultrasound photo. "I was kind of hoping to hear your opinion..."

"Kid..." Dante said, "... It's inside your body. As far as I'm concerned, you make the rules here. What do **you** want to do? ... If you want to just get that thing out, then that's fine with me."

Nero leaned on Dante even more and hid his face against the other man's warm chest. "I only know what I don't want to do... I don't want to kill this thing..." he snorted with sad amusement. "It gave me a middle-finger's up when I first put the camera on... It has these tiny, tiny fingers and toes..."

Dante looked at his young mate. "And you got attached..."

"Something so small, completely helpless and dependent on me to survive, living inside my body, growing up into a child", the boy spoke with a shaky voice and sniffed. "It makes me feel important somehow... But this is all so scary."

"No, don't be scared..." the older man whispered and hugged Nero. "I'm with you here, no need to be afraid..."

"What are we going to do?" Nero started sobbing against Dante. He'd promised himself not to cry, but he couldn't help it when his partner was being so gentle with him in a situation like this. He grasped the older man's shirt and clung onto him.

Dante stroke Nero's hair. "What are our options? Since you don't want to kill it, we're left with... 2 other choices... Either to give it up for adoption or... ... Or keep and raise it as our own..." he mumbled the last sentence with a really insecure tone in his voice.

Nero sniffed and wiped his eyes. "I was thinking about that adoption thing too, but think about it... The child won't be human. Having humans who are completely unaware of demons raise a part-demon baby... it could turn ugly..."

"I had powers as a child..." Dante muttered. "If it's anything like me, it's going to go through some serious trouble in a human family... I always knew I wasn't all human, but it wouldn't know that, and that's another problem right there."

"This is the part where we must stop being selfish and think about what's best for the baby..." Nero sighed. "So, for me the third option sounds... ... But we don't really have what it takes to be parents, do we? We're just two part-demon devil hunters, what kind of job is that to raise a family?"

Dante sighed. "Babe, we don't need to go through it alone. We've got Trish, Lady... Kyrie, friends and family to help. We've still got time to decide, it's not like it's going to be born anytime soon, right? If it's about the size of an apple now... We still have the option to give it away once it's born."

Nero frowned. "I don't want to give it away..." He said and stayed quiet for a while. "... I think we're keeping it..."

"Well... Your baby, your choice. I'll... do my best to support you."

"... You don't sound too happy, are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Honestly, I think my reaction would be same to every other option... This all feels so surreal... ... I never really wanted kids. I didn't even think about having them. And now there's an accident baby on the way..."

Nero was quiet for a moment. "I didn't want children either... I still don't want to have kids, I just... I want this one", he said and rubbed his belly. "It's kind of weird, to not want something but still want it... But I feel like this one's already a part of the family", the boy smiled. He turned to look at Dante. "Speaking of which... ... I'll let you have the honor of telling Vergil he's going to be an uncle."

Dante's eyes widened and he seemed to stare into the distance. "And I'm going to be a father... ... That's one scary thought right there..."

The boy looked up at him. "I know... But... I'm here for you", he said and smiled a little. "And all the friends and family you spoke of. And I just realized that excluding your brother they're all women. So with the help of their maternal instincts and stuff... Maybe it will turn out alright... Who knows, maybe it'll be fun..."

"... I'm still trying to figure out how in the hell is this possible? How long have you been pregnant? ... And why did Vergil tell you to break into the hospital? How did he know something was wrong with you when I didn't?" Dante asked with a frown.

Nero sighed. "I've thrown up almost every morning for quite a while now... Or at least felt so sick that I need to drag myself to the bathroom. And Vergil's always there at that hour, so after a few weeks he got either worried or annoyed and told me to do something about it. And... the age of the baby, according to the size chart and the time I've been feeling sick compared to other symptoms I've ignored... It's about um... Almost 16 weeks, which is about 4 months... ..." the boy thought a while and sighed with a hint of frustration. "It dates back to your goddamn mating season."

Dante bit his lips. "... Huh... ... Maybe... Maybe Vergil knows more about this..."

Nero snorted. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, he knows a lot... Of many things... Because he's such a bookworm... ... Let's go, I need to break the news to him anyway", Dante said and stood up from the bed. "Are you coming too, or will you stay here?"

"Oh, I'm coming. I want to see his reaction... Hehe" Nero giggled with curiosity.

"... Talk about mood-swings..." Dante mumbled.

The two went downstairs where Vergil was sitting on the couch and munching on some pizza they had bought earlier. He had put his coat on now, so no more bare shoulders. Vergil looked at the two walking closer at him and by his stare Nero realized he knew the boy had cried. His eyes were still red. Dante sat next to him while Nero sat on the other end of the couch. "You two look weird", he noted. "Something I should know?", he asked and took a bite of the pizza he was holding.

"Yeah, well, you're going to be an uncle", Dante said straightforwardly and put his hand on Vergil's shoulder. The blue twin, who was usually so calm and collected almost choked on his pizza and coughed for a while trying to get himself back together. "Christ, Verge", Dante mumbled and patted his brother's back, which clearly annoyed the man. "You alright?"

"I'm fine", he coughed and pushed Dante's hand away. He straightened up on the couch and stared at Dante with an unbelieving look on his face. "... Now what was it that you said?"

"Judging by your expression you heard exactly what I said", Dante said. Vergil kept staring at his younger brother. "But I never cheated on Nero, so... That's the strange part... You see...", he lifted Nero on his lap and raised his shirt, causing the boy to blush. "This lump here..."

Vergil's expression changed to something between confusion and disgust. "... Don't tell me..."

Nero pulled down his shirt with embarrassment. "... That explains the morning sickness, right?" he stuttered awkwardly.

"... And you're going to keep that? Why not just kill it before it's born?" Vergil asked bluntly.

"Nero doesn't want to. He got attached to it when it showed him its middle finger on ultrasound... And giving away a part-demon baby for clueless humans to raise would just cause trouble for the child in the future. So... ... So we're keeping it..." Dante muttered, still somewhat confused tone. "... You'll get to do some baby-sitting."

Vergil rolled his eyes. "So how can he be pregnant? Is he a transgender or hermaphrodite?"

"Neither!" Nero yelped. "I don't know how's this possible or why did it happen, but I don't have any female organs. ... Well, womb, for some unexplained reason, but besides that I'm all male! ... I don't even get periods so how's it possible to get pregnant? ... And womb shouldn't be connected to my ass, how does one get pregnant from being fucked in **there**?"

"Please shut up, that's disgusting", Vergil mumbled. He leaned on his hand and seemed to be thinking about something. "How much do you know about your parents, boy?"

Nero sighed. "I have a name... I know nothing about them. I was found abandoned as a baby. But I guess one of them had some kind of demonic heritage."

"That's for sure, because I doubt that soul fragment would've found it's way to you otherwise... What I'm suggesting, is that you're somehow related to a mono-gendered demon, and since you said you don't menstruate, your, uh, newly discovered uterus is triggered by a mating season most demons have somewhere around April or May, which would confirm that the organ and capability to reproduce despite your gender is inherited from a demon species with only one gender", the blue twin spoke. "But I think it's still pretty unusual to get pregnant since you're mostly human, and the chances are low."

The boy grunted. "Not if **someone** is on their spring heat and decides that they want to fuck and come inside of you at least once every day", he said and glared at Dante. He held a small pause and looked at Vergil. "Hey, do you have a mating season? Dante goes crazy that time of the year."

Dante closed his eyes and leaned on Nero with his head. "He doesn't need to know that..."

"I certainly don't", Vergil agreed with a frown. "But to answer your question, though it's not really your business, I do. But for me it's so ridiculously easy to ignore I don't see why some demons lose their minds to it", he said and looked at Dante.

"I can't help it! Besides, if I had known this could happen, I would've used a condom or something", Dante said. "It's not my fault."

"It's not, you're right..." Nero sighed. "I think I need to go to sleep, this whole thing really takes energy..." he said and stood up. "Oh, and by the way, Dante. This means we can't hide from anyone anymore. Get ready to get out of the closet", he chuckled as he walked upstairs. "I knew there would be something good coming out of this."

Vergil looked at the boy go and turned to Dante. "It's a bit weird. I always thought you were all in for women, but turns out you're gay."

Dante stared at Vergil with an odd expression. "I'm not gay." His brother raised an eyebrow at him. "... I just like Nero. So maybe I'm bi or something but I still like women", Dante muttered.

"Whatever you say", Vergil hummed.


	9. Surprise

Chapter 9. Surprise

A few days later Dante was napping on his usual spot in the office: feet lifted on the desk, leaning back on his chair with a magazine covering his face. Vergil was teaching Nero with Yamato again, this time with super easy repeated exercises to train his patience and technique. It was a pretty lazy day in Devil May Cry.

Vergil looked at the boy's practicing. "Getting better", he said.

Nero turned to the older man with a frustrated expression. "Finally! Now can we please practice something that would actually kill?" he groaned. "I don't get what's the point in beating enemies with the sheat instead of the sword."

The blue twin sighed. "That may seem useless to you, but it can be a very effective attack against weaker demons, and a part of a deadly 'combo', as Dante would say", he explained and stretched out his hand at the boy. "Give me that. I'll teach you a style related technique, in case you want to show off which I'm quite sure you do."

Nero gave Yamato to him a bit reluctantly. He hadn't asked to actually hold the sword when he had taught the boy, and Nero was a bit worried he wouldn't give it back anymore. Vergil took the sword and pulled it out of its sheat. He looked at it very closely from different angles as to make sure it was in a good shape and swung it in the air a bit. Nero watched him inspect the sword. "It means a lot to you, doesn't it?" he blurted out.

Vergil gave him an unexpected saddened look. "I hope you appreciate that I'm letting you borrow this."

The boy was startled by the expression. "Y-yeah, of course", he stuttered. "It's... very kind of you." The man snorted and turned his eyes back to the sword and sheated it. "... What was the style thing you mentioned?"

Vergil looked around the room for something to use the sword on. "Get those empty soda cans and pile them in the center of the room."

"Why don't you do it?" The blue-coated man gave him a cold glare. Nero sighed and went to get the cans. He piled them as Vergil instructed, into a tall and relatively unstable tower. "And then what?"

"Then you step away from it and let me demonstrate", Vergil said, and the boy obeyed. He grabbed the hilt and pulled Yamato out of its sheat and with a really fast set of moves which ended with him standing back to the structure.

"... You didn't even hit it", Nero mumbled with a weirded-out face. "... Did you actually even swing your sword at it?" Vergil just smiled and let out a small snort-like sound. 'Wait... Did he just laugh?' the boy thougth.

The man put the tip of Yamato in the hilt and started to slowly slide it in. Before it was completely inside, he held a small pause before pushing it in with a faint ting from when the guard hit the sheat. Almost instantly the cans in the pile were cut in half and the tower collapsed on the floor, creating lots of noise which woke Dante from his nap. Vergil sighed. "That felt good", he mumbled and handed the sword back to Nero whose eyes and mouth were now open from surprise.

"How did you do that?" he asked and pointed at the cans. "That was so cool! Teach me that!"

"Didn't I already say I would?"

"Oh, yeah, right. So how can you delay the effec-" Nero suddenly stopped and held his stomach area with eyes wide open. He looked down at his belly. It was completely silent as the two older men both just stared at the boy. "... It just moved around..." Nero muttered with a surprised smile. He turned to look at Vergil who had a somewhat startled expression on his face, as did Dante behind the desk. "... Sorry, did I scare you?" Nero laughed. Vergil let out air from his nose and rubbed his forehead while Dante sighed with relief. "Dante I understand, but you too? Haha, sorry!" the boy giggled.

Dante looked at Nero and lifted his feet off the desk. "Does it move a lot? ... What does it feel like?" he asked and wrinkled his nose.

"... Pretty weird... ... But Vergil, teach me that!"

As Vergil begun to explain Nero things about Yamato and how it works, the phone rang and Dante picked it up by kicking his feet back on the desk and flying the phone on his hand. "Devil May Cry", he answered. He took out a sticky note pad and wrote things down on it. "How much does it pay? ... Hmmh, alright... Yeah, don't worry, we'll do it anyway. ... Yeah, bye", he ended the call and put the phone back on the table. He stood up and stretched his arms and back and took Rebellion off the wall.

Nero looked at the older man. "We got a job?"

"Yeah, the pay's not very good, and the demon sounded pretty dangerous, but hey, not anyone can afford to pay much for our services", Dante said. "I'll be back by evening."

"What? Hey, wait, I'm coming with you!" the boy said and went to get his things.

The older man turned to the boy. "No, you're not." Nero looked at him with big, cute, confused eyes. Dante sighed. "Look... I can't take you on jobs when... You know... That..." he said and pointed at Nero's small baby lump. "It's dangerous."

"You haven't cared about danger before!" The boy yelled. "I won't let you go alone if it's too dangerous for me to come too", he grunted and crossed his arms.

"I thought you'd say that..." the red twin sighed and shook his head. "Vergil, come."

His brother looked at him. "Are you serious?"

"My thoughts exactly!" Nero hissed. "You're dumping me for Vergil!?"

"Don't say it like that, it sounds so wrong..." Dante groaned. "It's only temporary, okay? Once the baby's born, then you're welcome to come along. Until then I'm taking Vergil when the job seems more challenging."

"Have I no say in all this?" Vergil frowned. "Not that I didn't want to get out of this place every once in a while, though..."

"Yeah, so there's no problem. Let's go now. ..." Dante stopped at the door and looked at Vergil. "Are you gonna be fine with just Beowulf or do you want to borrow something."

"I'm good. I don't need anything else."

"Okay then. Bye, kid, don't wreck the place while we're gone", Dante chirped as he closed the door behind himself and his brother.

Nero stared at the door. He huffed and started piling up the cans that remained intact from Vergil's demonstration. He stopped midway and looked around the office. He peeked out from the door to see how far the two had gone. Nero closed the door and walked straight to the desk and opened the drawers. He took out a notebook filled with phone numbers and opened it on the table and went through the names searching for two particular ones. Once he found them, he picked up the phone and dialed the numbers with a mischievous smirk.

The twins returned few hours later, bringing a small banknote bundle with them. The amount was only about 150 dollars, but that would have to do. Nero took the money into a small safe located in Dante's bedroom and returned to the two with a wide smile.

Dante looked at the boy walk straight to him and hug him while still smiling with strange excitement. The man couldn't help but to smile back with a questioning frown. "What?" he chuckled. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"I've got a surprise for you", the boy murmured. "But you're not going to like it."

The older man tilted his head. "Oh? What is it?"

Nero circled his finger on Dante's chest. "I called Lady while you were gone." The man's smile faded a little as he started to have a bad feeling about what the boy was saying. "She's coming here tomorrow with Trish, and you're going to tell them about our little secret..."

"... You're kidding, right?" Dante forced a smile, which soon faded. "You're not, are you... But... Kid, that's... ... I hate you", he pouted.

Nero chuckled. "Love you too. It's never going to happen if I leave it up to you, so you should be thanking me. Oh and don't worry, I called Kyrie too, so it's not just you who's gonna need to brace yourself for tomorrow."

"But still, that's... ... Hey! What are you laughing at?" the red twin grunted at his smiling blue counterpart sitting on his usual spot on the couch. "Do you like seeing me in trouble? You're not a very good big brother", Dante mumbled.

"I just like this boy's methods of getting things done", Vergil smirked. Dante sighed.

Nero pressed himself against his older mate and tied his arms around him under the coat. "I'm sorry, let's kiss and make up... ... And it's been a while since we last had sex, you know... I'm kinda horny", the boy spoke in a husky voice and licked Dante's collar bone.

The older man looked at the boy and decided to forgive him just like that. "Yeah... I'm blaming Vergil for being such a creep last time we did..." Dante muttered and cupped Nero's ass with both hands and kissed him. Nero returned the kiss and pushed his tongue in Dante's mouth, causing a pleased moan-like sound leave the man's now smiling lips.

Vergil looked at the two making out and occasionally moaning in each other's mouths, and all the wet noises from kissing and licking and drool... "... No audio, please..." he grunted with disgust. Nero smiled and presented Vergil with a middle finger.


	10. Disclosure

Chapter 10. Disclosure

Nero put on his usual red sleeveless hoodie and zipped it, looking down on his torso. He put his hands on his belly with a frown. "Hey, Dante", he called and heard a faint hum from between the covers where the older hunter still lazed about. "Do I look fat in this? Does the baby-lump stand out when I wear this?"

Dante lifted his head with a tired frown and looked at the boy. "It's small... It doesn't show unless you know it's there..." he mumbled and yawned. He lay back down and pulled the blanket up to his nose. "Vertical stripes make you look slimmer anyway... Worry about it more when it's the size of a watermelon..."

"Easy for you to say, mr never-gain-weight-no-matter-what-I-eat..." The boy mumbled and took off the hoodie and searched for something that wouldn't fit so tightly. He dressed into a plain, black, loose hoodie that didn't have a zipper on it. "You know, you can't just sleep all day. Lady and Trish will be here before long. And Kyrie. So I think you should at least take a shower."

The man groaned and sat up on the double-bed. He rubbed his eyes drowzily and looked at the boy. "Want me to look my best, eh? Give a good impression to your ex-girlfirend?"

Nero stopped what he was doing to look at Dante with a tired expression. "I'd prefer you didn't call her that... It doesn't feel right. What we had never went past love for a sibling."

Dante blinked. "But you guys were dating, right? You don't date siblings, do you? ... I wouldn't date Vergil."

"No, of course not... At the time it just felt like we should, because, well, we grew up together, we both had a religious up-bringing thanks to The Order, and we loved each other. Just not like that... So we dated, but... It still kinda wasn't dating..."

The older man leaned on his knees. "You never told me about your break-up. How did it happen?"

Nero snorted. "Aren't you curious... Honestly, it was more funny than it was sad. There's absolutely no hard feelings left from it. You see, since most of the religious bullshit went down along with The Order, people became more open and free with what they really wanted and were, so... I went to Kyrie and came out gay." He turned to look at Dante whose expression was a bit surprised and somewhat doubtful. "Yes, I'm serious. I told her I'm gay and that I have a thing for another man, so we couldn't really be together seriously."

"Wait... What another man?"

"... Oh?" Nero hummed. "Is that jealousy I hear? This is new." Dante snorted. "Don't worry, I was talking about you... I had a crush on you after your visit..." the boy confessed with a blush. "But then the funny part. Kyrie was actually really relieved to hear that because she had a crush too. On another girl."

"... Kyrie's into girls?" Dante chuckled. "I did not see that coming."

"I know, right", Nero laughed. "So we laughed and broke up, and started being more like siblings. I don't know what happened between her and that girl. I don't know who she even is, to be honest... Kyrie encouraged me to seek you out, by the way. I wouldn't have come all the way here from Fortuna to _'learn from a more experienced devil hunter'_ if she hadn't told me to go after you. But I haven't told her how things turned out."

"It's really unfair how you already know what her reaction to us will be, while I have no idea what Trish and Lady will think... And then there's this baby-thing."

"Yeah..." Nero thought for a while. "... By the way, what you said about dating siblings, I actually had a dream last night where you and Vergil-"

"I don't want to hear that!" Dante yelped. "That's fucking gross, kid."

"... It was pretty hot", Nero smirked.

"Ugh... I'm going to take that shower now... No more talk about twincest when I come back", the older man muttered and went to the door, carrying his clothes with him.

"You just don't get it, it was like two Dantes! Two hot guys on each other and then on a threesome. Haven't you ever wanted to have sex with a pair of sexy twins?"

Dante turned to look at the boy with a bothered expression. "Well, yeah, but... No, ew, stop... Don't talk about it anymore..."

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" Nero smirked.

The older man stared at him with a frustrated and disgusted expression. "Yes. Very. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go throw up and have an ice-cold shower to get rid of the mental image", he groaned and left. Only about few seconds later he returned to the door. "You don't... **Actually** want to do that... Right...?"

"No! No no, it's just a dream! Kinky fantasy stuff. I don't actually want him on the same bed with us. No. And I wouldn't make you do something like that. Or him. Being asexual and everything. He wouldn't want it anyway. And he would probably be just as disgusted as you are. I just want you. ... Now go take that shower already", Nero stammered with a deep red blush.

Some time later the girls arrived at Devil May Cry. Nero went to give Kyrie a warm welcome hug when she walked in through the doors along with Trish and Lady, whom she had encountered on her way there and the three had decided to go together.

Lady walked around the room and looked around, removing her sunglasses. "Wow, this place is actually clean for once. I'm impressed", she whistled and noticed Vergil sitting on his spot on the couch. "Oh... You're still here."

The man lifted his gaze to meet with hers. "Would you prefer I wasn't?"

"Well, no, uh... If Dante welcomes you, then, I guess I should too. Just... Don't start any new demon invasions", Lady said.

Vergil snorted. "As you wish, Ma-", he grunted and rolled his eyes. "Lady."

"Ooh, Dante's been teaching you to behave, huh?"

"Now now, Lady, don't upset my brother", Dante chuckled as he walked out of the bathroom. He looked around the place with a surprised expression. "Wow it's... Clean? Kid, did you clean this place up when I was asleep?"

Nero crossed his arms. "I didn't want to invite Kyrie into some messy man-cave. Besides, Vergil's been complaining about it too, so I just did you two a huge favor."

Dante snorted. "I guess so." He looked around the room and went to Nero, pulling him away from Kyrie. "So... They're here... What now?" he whispered.

"Now you go and tell them. Just like that", the boy whispered back.

"But..." Dante glanced around the room nervously. "... What if... We tell later...?"

"By Sparda..." Nero sighed. "If you won't do it, then I will."

The older man took a really deep breath and looked around the room once more. "I... ... Alright, I'll do it... ... But let's not do it right now, it would be a weid timing and all, let's uh, have a drink first and maybe eat something, get everyone comfortable..." he bargained with a pained expression.

The boy laughed. "Well, that's not a bad idea. I actually ordered a pizza earlier and cut it into small snack-pieces. I'll go get it." Nero walked away from Dante and told Kyrie to make herself comfortable, as Trish and Lady had no problems acting like they lived at Dante's.

Dante took a beer from the fridge and sat next to Vergil while downing half the bottle in a few heavy gulps. He relaxed a little and leaned back on the couch and sighed.

Vergil looked at his brother who had an anguished expression on his face. He snorted with amusement. "Having trouble, brother?"

"Don't you laugh", Dante grunted. "This is the most awful situation I've ever been in." This only added to his brother's devilish grin. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Enjoying what? Watching you sweat over such a small matter of fact, doing your best to delay telling anyone about it and having that awful, distressed look plastered on your face?" the blue twin snickered. "I'm luxuriating in it."

"You're awful. I hate you, Verge", the younger brother pouted.

"I'm flattered."

Some time later Dante was standing while leaning on his desk and Nero went to stand next to him. Vergil had moved to sit up the stairs on the railing when the women had gathered on the couch around him, making him feel unpleasantly crowded. Nero cleared his throat and everyone turned to look at him. Dante felt his heart start racing. "So, the reason I invited you here..." Nero started and turned to look at Dante with a mischievous smirk. "Is because Dante has something to tell you."

The man turned to look at his young mate. "Ugh, you're making **me** say it?" he groaned. In the corner of his eye he could see Vergil lean forward on the railing as to observe the situation closer. Dante sighed and looked at each of the people in the room now staring at him. He took a deep breath. "... Well... Nero and I, we... We've been... together, for some time now. ... In a... romantic... way..." he mumbled while staring at his feet.

Nero snickered. "Let me translate that..." he said and wrapped his hand around Dante's waist from behind the man and leaned on him, making him jump slightly. "Dante's my boyfriend", he stated frankly, sounding really proud.

Kyrie squealed with excitement and jumped up from the couch to hug Nero while the other two women were left with their mouths open. "Oh, I'm so happy for you!" she cheered as he clung to Nero's neck.

"... Oh my god", Lady laughed awkwardly. "Oh god, Dante, I... You're into men too? I had no idea!"

"...Me neither..." Dante mumbled with a really faint blush and a forced smile.

Trish looked at Dante and then Vergil who was still sitting above them and showed no reaction to the disclosure. He returned his gaze to Nero who held his hand around the awkward devil hunter. "... So this is why you were so quiet and calm during last May..." Trish realized and clapped his hands together. She then laughed a little. "Though I feel sorry for the poor boy who had to endure it all, now."

Kyrie looked a bit confused, but Nero assured her that she didn't need to know what was so special about May.

Nero gave Dante a meaningful glance as he spoke. "But... that's not all there is..."

Dante breathed out and looked up at Vergil. "You can explain this part, right? You said it so well earlier."

"Wait a second", Lady interrupted. "Vergil knew before we did? We've known each other for years and he just walzed in one day and you let him in on all your secrets?"

Vergil jumped down to the ground floor making barely any sound as he landed. Seeing the man just fall down made Kyrie gasp. "Dante's not to blame. I figured out myself", he stated. "Or rather, I walked in on them."

"... Hah, awkward."

The blue twin looked at Dante and Nero. "Should I explain this, then?" he asked and nodded towards Nero.

"You have a way with words", Dante said. "I think it comes out best when you say it."

"Very well", Vergil sighed. He took a comfortable position, leaning on the closest wall. Everyone stared at him, which, in fact, kind of annoyed him. "Due to Nero's relation to demons, he has inherited the ability to bear children despite being male. Combined with the mating season of demons such as Dante, the chances for impregnation increase. As a result", he held a small pause and nodded towards the boy, making everyone turn their looks at him instead, "the boy's now pregnant, and they're planning to keep it."

Everyone stared at the white haired couple an especially Nero who was hiding his blushing face against Dante's shoulder. It was really silent in the room, and a very awkward atmosphere. Dante looked through everyone's expressions, as did Vergil. Everyone had their eyes blown open from surprise and confusion.

Kyrie was first to speak, blushing from that fact since she was pretty shy. "You're having a baby?", she asked quietly, and Nero nodded. "... That's wonderful!" she gasped, confused but happy.

Lady approached Dante. "I thought you didn't want kids?" she asked, trying to sound less confused than she really was.

The man in red looked at Lady with a frown. "Excuse me, but I didn't think I'd need birth control when having sex with another man. We didn't know this could happen."

"... But you're still keeping it."

Dante looked down at Nero and held him lightly from his side. "Yeah... But it's not my call to make."

"I see", Lady muttered. She looked at Dante and around the place, and then at Dante again. "I can't think of you as a father. ... You don't really mix with that word."

"I know..." the man sighed. "But I think that maybe during the next few months it'll start feeling more... normal."

It was Trish's turn to ask. "Why didn't you tell me about your relationship earlier? Nero's been living in here for a year now, and I had no idea you were sleeping together literally few meters away from my room."

"Dante was embarrassed", Nero answered.

"... Well that's new", Trish muttered. "... Why?"

Dante looked uncertain. "I'm not really sure... ... I guess I thought that if I liked men, you guys wouldn't want to... hang out with me anymore... or something..." he spoke.

"Oh, you..." Lady chuckled. "We don't mind. Girls like guy on guy action."

"... They do?"

"Yeah, same way you like to watch girl on girl."

"... Huh."

"Who says you get to watch?" Nero grunted. Trish laughed and ruffled Nero's hair a little, calling him sweetie, like she usually did.

Kyrie pulled Nero by his sleeve. "Um... It's kinda weird to ask you this, but... Do you have a baby-belly?" Both of the two women turned to look at Nero as well. The boy just stood there, looking at the curious faces without saying anything.

"Show it", Lady insisted.

"What? No!" Nero yelped and pulled his hoodie lower.

"So you do! Show it!"

Dante looked at the situation the boy was in with a smile on his face. The two women tried to pull Nero's shirt up while Kyrie stood further away from their struggle with an apologizing expression, but still holding back giggles. Vergil walked to Dante.

"You're not going to help him?" he asked.

Dante shook his head. "Nah."

Nero gave in after some time, walking away from the women. "Alright, alright! You win! I'll show it..." he grunted and raised his shirt with a deep blush, his side facing the group of thrilled girls staring at him.

* * *

><p>Yup, that's the only way I can think of to end this chapter... ._.<p> 


	11. Twenty weeks

I'm sorry it's so short ;_; Here, have a mini-smut

* * *

><p>Chapter 11. Twenty weeks<p>

Dante woke up to a warm, wet kiss on his lips. After opening his eyes he saw Nero, sitting on top of him and holding his cheek with his human hand. Another kiss landed on his lips and the boy made a thrusting motion with his hips while sitting on his crotch. Dante pulled away from the kiss gently as the younger male started tracing his upper body with his Devil Bringer while panting seductively. "Shit, kid... We just did it last night..." the man groaned quietly. Nero snorted lightly and backed up a little to pull down his underwear to expose his dick. "I'm tired, let me sleep...", Dante mumbled.

Nero ignored his pleas and took Dante's length into his grip and started moving his hand in a steady pace while playing with the man's nipple with the other hand. "You don't have to do anything... Just lie still", he murmured. It wasn't difficult to get Dante hard, as he seemed to always be up to it, even if they'd just done it minutes ago. Although, the older man preferred to have some recovery time despite not actually needing it. The boy removed his boxers clumsily while still staying on top of the man and took his own dick in the same grip with Dante's and rubbed them both up and down and against each other, making the other moan guietly.

Dante watched as Nero lifted himself and crawled a bit higher on his body and placed the tip of his cock at his entrance. He bit his lip as the boy slowly lowered himself with a groan. He had lubricated his ass beforehand to make things go smoother, that sly, horny kid... Dante moaned a little as Nero started riding him in a slow pace and leaned on his hands placed on Dante's chest. He put his hands on the boy's thighs to give him at least some support.

It didn't take long for Nero to find his own sweet-spot with Dante's cock, and he groaned a bit louder as he did. He picked up his pace a little, moaning harder and more often as the older man's dick brushed over his prostate. He felt how Dante pushed his hips upwards to meet with his movements, thrusting himself further into the boy and making him arch his back and groan loudly.

Dante had hard time concentrating on what was happening on his crotch, having just woken up and not really being a morning person. It was probably because of that why he was getting so much pleasure out of it, making him pant uncontrollably and moan every now and then. He let out a long, growling moan as he came inside the boy on top of him. Nero followed rather quickly and sperm landed on Dante's abdomen. The boy panted and trembled for a while before getting off the older man and collapsing next to him on the bed, still gasping for air. Dante turned to look at his young lover. "Gosh..." he muttered. "I guess I wouldn't mind starting every day with a morning quickie..."

Nero chuckled. "Don't get used to it... I just woke up extremely horny... ... I'm blaming hormones", he said and placed one hand on his belly.

Dante also felt the baby bump with his hand. "It's grown a lot, hasn't it..."

The boy nodded with a sigh. "It's 20 weeks now... About halfway there. And it seems that the womb has moved closer to the surface. I feel like it was... deeper before". He turned to look at Dante. "I need you to get me some things."

"Things? What things?"

"I'll make you a list... And go to the bookstore too. I know nothing about pregnancy... So I need you to buy me books about it, because there's no way I'm going anywhere with **this**", he grunted and pointed at his grown belly area. "I look ridiculous."

"Oh come on, now... It's going to get even bigger."

"... You're not helping."

Dante chuckled. "I know, sorry..." He kissed Nero's forehead. "If you feel comfortable staying home, then that's fine. I'll get you the things you need."

"Thanks... Now, we should take a shower... I feel sticky."

Later the two were sitting on the couch, Nero writing stuff on a note and Dante counting how much it would all cost. Vergil was, unsurprisingly, sitting on the other end of the couch on his usual spot. He looked at the two and leaned back on the couch. "Have you thought about a name?" he asked.

Both hunters turned to look at the blue twin. "... No... I haven't thought about it yet..." Nero said. "... We don't even know if it's a boy or a girl. ... Though, I'm happy with either one", he hummed.

Dante chuckled and stroke Nero's hair. "Well then, I guess I should be off. To get these things and to the bookstore... I just hope that I won't come across someone I know when I'm getting the books because... yeah. It could be a bit awkward..."

Vergil lifted his head. "You're going to the bookstore?"

"... Aaaand I'm guessing you want to come too..." the man sighed. "I really need to ask Lady to forgive my debt even if it meant begging on my knees, just so that I can start saving money to use it on stuff like this..."

At the bookstore, Dante had to constantly remind Vergil to stick close to him so that he could keep an eye out on what his twin was eyeing in the store. After all, it was his money they were using. The cashier glanced at the two every now and then with an amused expression. The squabble between the twins must've seemed somewhat funny to an outsider.

Vergil sighed and picked up book from the maternity shelf and looked at it before shoving it to Dante. "Put those back and take this instead. It's more of an all-in-one."

Dante looked at the thicker book in his hands and turned it around to read the backside. "Huh... Yeah, I guess you're right", he mumbled and put the other books of the same subject back to the shelf. "And it's cheaper to buy just this instead of three separate books."

"Exactly", the older twin stated and looked around the other shelves, picking up another book and reading the backside. "What's your take on all this?" he asked.

"Huh?" His brother gave him a meaningful stare, and Dante turned his gaze down at the maternity book in his hands. "... I don't know..." he sighed. "It feels so surreal... Like I can't process this, somehow. First you show up and then the kid gets pregnant, this all feels like a dream..."

"So you don't know how to feel."

"Yeah... ... Nero seems happy about it... So I guess I should too, but... ... I'm not really daddy-material, am I?"

Vergil snorted. "Are you expecting encouraging words or an honest opinion?"

Dante chuckled. "I thought you'd say something like that... You're not really the type of person I would call an 'uncle' either, you know. Seriously, though... I just wish this all turns out alright. I don't know what to expect..."

"Ugh..." the blue-clad man sighed. "This is the part where I'm supposed to pat you on the back and say everything's going to be fine, isn't it?"

Dante smiled. "You don't have to do that, I know you don't want to." He turned to look at his brother. "But... a hug could do nicely", he said and quirked his eyebrows.

Vergil frowned. "No."

"Why not? I'm your brother after all. Come on, hug me!"

"We're in public you moron", the older twin growled.

"... So what you're saying is that if we were back home you could hug me?"

"Shut it. I wouldn't hug you even if we were at your place. Besides, you don't look like you need any of that sentimental rubbish", Vergil grunted at his grinning twin. "Let's just go back. You got what you came for." He put the book in his hand on top of the pregnancy book.

Dante looked down at the book. "What's this? Nonfiction? You're so boring, Verge... Always facts, never fantasy..." he chuckled and walked to the cashier.


	12. Acceptance

I'm skipping lots of weeks because I don't want to write all 9 months, 40 weeks, 280 days... Because that would take forever o.o

* * *

><p>Chapter 12. Acceptance<p>

"I fucking hate this", Nero groaned as he slumped on the couch, next to Vergil. He was holding the maternity book Dante bought him and a piece of pizza in the other hand. The boy looked down at his belly. "I want my six-pack back. Why can't you just go away already?"

Vergil looked at Nero talking to his baby-bump. "I thought you wanted the child?" he asked.

Nero turned to look at the blue twin. "I do. But I don't want this!" he said and poked his abdomen. "I want the baby without growing a huge lump on my stomach. I look like I have a beer-belly!" He sighed. "I can't go anywhere with this... This book suggests that I go see the doctor on certain points of this, but there's no way I'm doing that. There was no need for ultrasound stuff in the 1500's, so there should be no need for that now either."

"I suppose not", Vergil snorted.

"... Hey, should we give it a Latin name?"

"Latin?"

The boy rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, like, you know... You and Dante have names that originate from Latin or Italian... And Nero too, and then there's Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus... So I just thought it'd be weird to just name it something like 'Max' or 'Cindy' or something like that.

"Huh... Well, there are other kind of names around too, like Trish and Mary. I mean Lady, although it's not really a name", Vergil pointed out. "You shouldn't name it over something like that."

Nero thought for a while. He looked at Vergil a little shyly, wondering if it was alright to ask. "... What was your mother's name?"

The man in blue coat glanced at Nero and turned his gaze at the book on his lap. "Eva."

The boy nodded adsent-mindedly. "That's a beautiful name", he muttered, just to be polite, but immediately regretted and felt slightly ashamed to say something like that to Vergil, who wasn't really the soft type...

"You trying to make me cry, boy?" the man sneered.

"No, I just- ... Why am I always 'boy' but Dante's just 'Dante'? Why don't you call me Nero?" Nero grunted. "It's worse than him calling me 'kid'... Is it just because Dante is your brother or what?"

"Yes."

The boy was a bit taken aback by the quick and honest answer, and didn't know how to respond. Thank god Dante came to interrupt the awkward silence forming in the main room. The man sat next to Nero and wrapped his arm around him, pulling the boy close against him.

"Anything new?" Dante asked, referring to the book on Nero's hands. "Is there anything special that we should do at this point?"

Nero looked at the book and thought for a moment. "... Well, if you want to, we could think about names and such, and... ..."

"... And?"

"... We're going to need one new bedroom, you know... Our bedroom doesn't have room for anything extra, and I'm pretty sure that Vergil doesn't want to share his room with a baby..."

Dante frowned. "Shit, you're right... I don't have any money... I'll have to take every job I can get... Damn..."

"And then there's the fact that the child's going to need a birth certificate... An identity and stuff. But how are we going to do that without having to explain everyone how a man could suddenly get pregnant? There's so much to do, we've only got 18 or 20 weeks, around 5 months to go. The baby's supposed to be born somewhere in the end of January", Nero muttered.

"I've got that certificate identity thing covered, don't worry about it... I know someone who works there and he knows about demons and all, so we'll only have to explain to him and he'll take care of it for us", Dante said and stroke Nero's hair. "The main concern here is building another bedroom... There is an empty space between the walls upstairs that could be turned into a room easily, but it costs money, and there we have a problem. Not to forget everything we'll need to get for the child... A crib, diapers... other baby things..."

"How are you going to get it out in the first place?" Vergil asked and the two hunters turned to look at him. "I doubt that his pelvis will spontaneously widen and start to resemble that of a female when the baby's born, as it hasn't gotten any wider during these past 5 months."

Nero turned up his nose with a somewhat shocked expression. "I'm** not** going to give birth through my ass! That sounds just plain awful! And painful! Gosh... I'll think of something... I still have 5 months for that."

"... I also had to wonder, are you going to breast feed or will you feed the child with infant formula milk? Because if stimulated with certain hormones, males can produce milk as well as females, and you're getting those kind of hormones a lot nowdays. So it's possible."

A sad, scared frown formed on the boy's face and he turned to look at Dante. "I don't want boobs", he whimpered.

Dante hugged Nero and looked at his brother with a begging expression. "Verge, stop with these cruel facts... We're going to go with infant formula milk, because I'm pretty sure my Nero will stay flat-chested", he said and kissed Nero's forehead.

**About three weeks later**

Dante returned from an extremely long, boring job that had nothing to do with demons, mostly just acting as a bodyguard for some rich folk while they toured the city on a business trip, or something like that. Nothing happened that day. As soon as the door to Devil May Cry closed, Dante threw off his jacket and unbuckled every strap on his body and tossed them on the floor as he walked towards the couch, finally kicking off his shoes and pulling off his chaps and gloves and slumping on the couch next to Nero with a heavy sigh, now wearing only his black shirt and red jeans.

Nero looked at the tired man with an amused smirk on his face. "Well that was interesting..." he chuckled. "If it only was that quick in the bedroom."

Dante snorted with a smile. "I hope you appreciate that I'm doing this for you. I hate boring jobs like that... The pay was good, at least", he said and pulled a bundle of banknotes out of his pocket and gave it to Nero who proceeded to count the money.

"You should always work for rich people", he mumbled with a smirk. "I bet you got extra from carrying a huge sword on your back, because that's scary." Nero put the money in his own pocket after counting it. "We could start building the room with what we have now. I'm guessing we'll do it ourselves instead of hiring others because it'll be cheaper-" air left the boys lungs and made him lean forward a little.

Dante stared at Nero with a startled expression. "... Kid?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Nero assured him. "The baby's kicking really hard..." he laughed. He looked at Dante sitting next to him. "Do you want to feel it?"

"Feel?" Dante asked. Nero took the confused man's hand and pulled it closer and pressed it against his belly while holding his own on top of it. A few seconds passed before Dante felt movement on his palm that made him smile.

Nero chuckled and stroke Dante's hand while looking down at the bump. "That's papa you're kicking now. He's been out getting money to get you your very own room", he murmured.

Dante smiled and leaned on Nero's shoulder with his head. "'Papa', huh? Why not daddy?"

"Because I'm daddy, of course. It would be confusing to have two daddies, so you're papa. Or pop if you prefer."

"Pfft, fine..." the man chuckled. "I'll start with building right tomorrow if I don't get any jobs. Most likely I'll just break down a wall to make it the spot for the door and look inside a little."

At night around midnight the two were laying down in bed. Thanks to the cool nights of September, they could snuggle under thick warm blankets at night and feel comfortable like that. Nero had tried to find a good position to sleep in for quite a while, which proved difficult thanks to the still growing belly. At some point he just kind of gave up and lay on his side, facing Dante. He noticed that the man wasn't sleeping either. "Sorry, am I keeping you awake?" he whispered.

Dante looked at the boy and shook his head. "You're not", he said. "I'm just... thinking about stuff." The man crawled closer to Nero and lower on the bed so that his face was against the boy's chest. "... Before you made me feel its movements, I... hadn't fully realized that it won't just go away after the pregnancy ends. There's an actual living child inside that we'll have to take care of. ... A son or daughter that's mine", he whispered and took a long shaky breath.

Nero stroke the man's hair gently. "Are you crying?" he asked quietly. He had never seen Dante cry. The older man had seen him cry many times, mostly thanks to moodswings from being pregnant... As to his question, he got a sniff for an answer. "... Are you upset about this?" Nero asked, afraid that his partner didn't want the child.

"No, no I'm... I don't know", Dante spoke quietly with a slightly trembling voice. "I love you, kid... When I felt the kicks, it made me feel so happy, but... Now I'm just scared. What if... What if I'm not a good father...? I know nothing about raising children..."

"Oh, baby..." Nero murmured and hugged the older man. "I'm sure you'll be a wonderful parent... You're so sweet and caring." He kissed Dante's head and nuzzled on it gently. "We'll be fine. I promise." He felt Dante wrap his arms around him and relax a bit and lean closer into his chest.


	13. Anniversary poker

Chapter 13. Anniversary poker

Dante walked to the staircase around 12 am and noticed Lady and Trish sitting on the couch with Nero, Vergil had moved to sit where Dante usually did: behind the desk. As he walked down he noticed that the girls were staring at him with funny expressions. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing", Trish chuckled. "Just heard how this whole family business has gotten you **so** emotional."

Dante blinked a couple of times. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You've got a bad case of blabbermouth, kid..." he grunted. "The last time I'm getting soft with you..."

Nero chuckled. "Sorry, they asked what you thought about this and it just kinda slipped", he chirped.

"Hahaha, you're so cute, Dante!" Lady laughed. "But hey, 'devil may cry', right?"

Nero looked at Lady. "... How did this place get that name, anyway? Is it somehow related to crying?"

"Oh, yeah, I said that and he named the store after it. That's... when Vergil fell at Temen-ni-gru", Lady told. The mentioned twin, along with everyone else, turned to stare at Dante standing near the stairs. For a while it was completely silent in the room.

Dante sighed. "You just **had** to say that to everyone..." he mumbled. "Today looks bad for me. Might as well go back to sleep..." He walked to his desk and looked at Vergil sitting on his chair. "Move."

"To where exactly?" Vergil sneered.

"Just move..." Dante groaned, making his brother give up and jump-teleport on top of the staircase and sit on the railing. Dante sat on the chair and lifted his feet on the desk. He turned to look at Lady. "Oh, uhm... I needed to ask you something..."

"What is it?" Lady asked.

"Is there... anyway you could forgive my debt?" The man asked with a apologizing expression.

Lady's eyes widened and she frowned with an unbelieving expression. "What? Do you have any idea how much you owe me!? It's not a small sum you know", she snapped. "You've brought it on yourself by messing up my jobs and losing at every bet, poker and pool game we play!"

Vergil snorted. "I see your luck's still not better, brother", he chuckled.

"Shut up, Verge", Dante grunted. "But Lady, please. We need all the money I can get! At least give me more time to pay back. Let me keep what I have now and I'll pay you when I can."

Lady sighed and looked at Nero and the baby-bump. The woman grunted as she turned her face back at Dante. "Urgh, fine! But I'm only doing this for the baby, you still owe me."

"I know, I know, thank you", Dante sighed. "I'll make this up to you, I promise."

"Yeah, yeah..." She turned to look at Nero again. "How far is it now?"

"Umm..." the boy thought for a while. "26 weeks, which is... the end of the sixth month... Next week it will be seventh month and third trimester", he said and put his hands on his belly. "It's grown so huge and it's still not stopping..."

Trish patted Nero's head. "Don't worry, once it's out then you'll go at least almost back to normal. Although with the devil hunting career you have a better chance than most women do", she chuckled. "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Nope", Dante mumbled and leaned his head back on the chair. "We're building a nursery upstairs and the walls will be just white since we don't know the gender. Kid says I should go shopping for baby-stuff some time soon too..."

"Just you? He's not coming along?" Trish asked and turned to look at Nero.

"Yeah, he's refusing to leave this place while looking like that. I'm taking one of you girls with me, because I don't want to go alone. It's embarrassing... Last time I went to get him pregnancy related shit I got weird looks from everyone."

Trish laughed. "I think you're imagining it. But it's fine, I can come with you when you're going."

"You don't need to go right now, though", Nero said. "The due's in January, and now's October, so there's still time."

Dante lifted his head as if he'd remembered something. "October..." he mumbled. "Oh. Oh, hey, kid, I just remembered. Happy anniversary", Dante grinned.

"Anniv... It's today?" Nero asked. "I didn't remember at all!"

"Heh, me neither. Until now. But now that we do remember, we should do something nice together, don't you think?" the man said and crossed his arms on his chest. "Since you prefer staying indoors, what do you say we order some food and... Strawberry Sundaes for dessert. Let's have a cozy evening at home and I'll teach you how to play poker. Deal?" Dante spoke in his flirty suggestive tone.

Nero couldn't help but smile and look around the rooms as the two women stared at him like they were waiting for his answer. "It's a deal, but... How about instead of ordering food, we try cooking?"

"Cooking? Huh... Well, fine with me, I suppose. Though you should probably know that I have never cooked a single meal myself."

"I already know that... I've been living here for a year, if you knew how to cook, you would've done so at some point, right? It can't be that hard, people do it everyday", Nero said. "I'll make you a list of ingredients."

"Again with the lists..." Dante mumbled. "Where do you come up with all that stuff?"

Nero shrugged. "Kyrie and I used to watch when Credo was cooking. I remember some recipies. It's not complicated, fry this, boil that, throw in some salt... Simple."

Dante picked up the pad of notes from the table and attached a pen to it. "Catch", he said as he tossed it to the boy who caught it with his Devil Bringer. "Where should we put Vergil while we're celebrating?"

The blue twin sitting on the railing sighed audibly. "I'll be in my room..." he mumbled.

Trish looked at the man above them. "You'd think that a twin of Dante would be more... fun", she spoke. "Do you actually have anything in common, besides the face and heritage?"

Dante glanced upwards. "Well... Not much... We used to, but I'm not sure anymore."

"You both like to fight", Nero mentioned while writing things on the note. "But that's about it, I guess... Isn't it kind of a twin-thing to be polar opposites of each other as well? You're reckless, Vergil's calm. You're rebellious, he's traditional. At least that's how I see it, since he doesn't use guns... The Order was like that too."

"Yeah, there's that. And how Vergil was able to enjoy his demon side from the beginning and I just wanted to remain human. Right, Verge?" Dante asked and looked upwards.

"If it wasn't for me, it could've taken years before your demon side was even awakened", Vergil snorted.

Dante narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"Remember, at Temen-ni-gru, how I thrust your sword through your chest and triggered your devil form? That wasn't an accident. I was trying to force you to realize how much power we had and how much stronger we could be. Should you have learned to embrace it that moment, I wouldn't have had to fight you."

"... So you're saying you fought me just because I was trying to stop you from opening the portal and getting all that power?"

"Of course. Didn't you only fight me because I was trying that? You did try to catch me when I jumped down", the blue-coated man pointed out. He let out an amused snort. "And you **cried** after me."

Dante frowned and looked away from his twin. "It was basically a suicide, goddamn it... Of course I cried. Asshole..." he grunted, making his brother snicker quietly.

"... I was wrong", Trish chuckled. "He's not that dull after all. Just... different kind of fun."

Later in the evening when Dante had done with shopping ingredients, the girls had left and Vergil had gone to his room upstairs, the two hunters tried cooking improvised steak-dinner with mashed potatoes and random cucumber-tomato-sallad. It was simple, just like Nero had said. They just had to boil and mash the potaetoes, and mix in a little bit of milk and butter; spice the meat with some pepper and salt and fry them until they were brown from both sides and the for the sallad they chose to only use cucumber and tomatoes and sliced them into small cubes. Done. And it tasted really good. Even Dante had to admit it was a nice change for pizza, although still not better.

After the meal Dante walked back to Nero from the door, holding a Strawberry Sundae in each hand. He placed them on the table where the boy was mixing cards. "Our dessert is here."

Nero looked at the two sundaes on the table. "They look really good. ... I'm surprised you could afford to eat something like that every day", he chuckled.

"Oh please..." Dante sighed. "I had a tab open at the cafe... Are you done mixing the cards?" The boy nodded. "Alright, let me explain you the rules, and then we'll play..." The game was slow as Dante had to explain Nero things during it. Also eating while playing made it a bit slower. It only ended once both had emptied their glasses. Dante put his cards down. "Full house", he stated blankly. With his luck, he was sure that the boy would have a Royal Straight Flush in his hands...

"Two pairs..." Nero mumbled and put the cards on the table.

Dante stood up from his seat and stared down at the cards on the table, making Nero look at him with a weird face. The man's eyes were blown open and his jaw was about to drop. "I won?" he mumbled and laughed. "I won! Haha! I can't believe it!"

"Dude, chill", Nero said. "This was my first game ever, wasn't it pretty obvious you were going to win?"

"You don't understand", Dante panted. "I've never won! I've even lost to a 10-year-old girl and owed her 10 ice cream cones!" He laughed and walked around the room with his hands in the air as if he was at a stadium receiving applauds.

Nero looked at the man's cheering and chuckled. "Idiot..." he mumbled with a smirk.


End file.
